What a Little Starlight Can Do...

I always wished I had the mathematical mind required to be an astronomer. I know so little about the stars, but I love how ancient cultures were able to construct buildings into which the sun would only shine one day out of the year on the winter solstice and shit like that. The ancients seemed far more aware of what was going on up there...I envy it. I've never blogged before. But the time has come. The stars are aligning. They're falling out of the sky, actually. Literally.

Sunday evening (from 11pm until dawn in the Northern hemisphere) is the peak night for the mesmerizing Perseids. This is the meteor shower that is visible annually in August. And this year we get a bonus. 'Cause Sunday, August 12, 2007 happens to also be a new moon. Meaning the sky will be darker and thus, those stars are gonna shine oh so bright.

Basically, here's what you do: it's dark. If it isn't dark, get your arse somewhere it is. Get out of the city for a night. I'm lucky 'cause I live rurally so I simply walk out to my back yard. Now lie on a blanket on the grass, preferably with someone who makes you hot under the collar. In my case, I have to settle for my German shepherd-Husky for company (she just makes me sneeze sometimes). You grab a bottle of something like an appetizing ale or vin rouge. Or maybe it's scotch (and I'm definitely not talking Johnnie Walker Red here–no, this type of occasion calls for something especially smooth like Oban), or maybe your bottle just has a message in it...

You roll, perhaps, a little something fragrant to smoke, if that's what you're into, but you can get high without this as well. Maybe all you're rolling is in the hay (proverbially, if you're not rural like myself) with the aforementioned hot-collar person. 'Cause you'll be witnessing some magic and the stars can have that kind of effect, especially when they're flying. Guaranteed you'll see at least one shooting star per minute. So go ahead! We, none of us, likely look up at the sky often enough. And we should. We really should, 'cause it's where we aim to shoot for our dreams. So do it more often, but especially do it tomorrow night. And while you're at it, mark your calendar to wash, rinse and repeat the above for the night of September 1, 2007, when, if you're smart, you'll jump at the chance to witness a rare meteor shower: the Aurigids. We won't see that one again in our lifetime. Well, this lifetime anyhow.

And maybe if you partake, then I won't have to feel I'm alone out there lying on the grass experiencing the wonder of it. After all, we're all made of stardust, ain't we? We're each of us an integral part of this vast universe, this 'way du lait', as I like to call it. Remember to make a wish. Hell, you can make a hundred while all those stars fall around you.

Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket, save it for a rainy day...
(Ahhh, good ol' cardigan clad Perry Como! He had the ticket!)

Drink it in. You don't even need the Oban, really. Nature can be her own greatest intoxicant...

Music: Vincent, Don McLean
This blog was originally posted on Nancy's Myspace and Facebook profiles on August 11, 2007.