OT: On Stars:
Sometimes kids are profound in what they say. On a rare evening in the Bronx NYC the summer night was exceptionally clear and all the haze was gone. With so many people cooling off sitting outside on the stoops or on the rooftops, the evening lights that usually parted the night were still dark. Even the street lights seemed to dim before the exceptional display of starlight. No moon distracted from the velvet blackness above. The stars had the stage and vamped it up. I didn't know constellations then, even to look for the Dipper or the North Star I was acquainted with from "Peter Pan". I was quite young and when my father commented about seeing all the stars we seldom glimpsed, I just had to ask if him if we were seeing the "Face of God".
I never ran of to a monestary or joined a cloistered order, but I sure knocked the old man back on his heels that night! (and just between us, that's what my young mind could see!) Now I'm way up in adult years and natural splendor is not viewed with the innocence that wonders at it all.
The city lights are brighter, come on earlier and those super bright mercury vapor lamps dull the the lights that spent thousands of years transitting for our enjoyment. It is a combination of the fog of age and the haze of civilization that dull our appreciation of the skies of our childhood. Of course once in a while we catch a break from the weather, and we put ourselves in the right place at the right time. Sadly we can't do it oft enough.
Now I am holding very long and very strong for our little star to start to shine. It's a little dwarf right now but I think we are all here at the dawn. There have been a lot of clouds obscuring the light, but they appear to be parting. Not soon enough for any of us, but clearing just the same.
I won't be able to attend the shareholder meeting, but maybe I'll take a ride down to the beach that morning to greet the sun, and think good thoughts for all of us.
Stakddek
