I’ve recently had a few conversations with friends about the night sky where we live.  The general consensus is that you can’t see enough stars at night because of the city lights.  That sounds like a perfectly reasonable opinion, so I just let it slide.  Who doesn’t like seeing lots of stars in the sky?

But I kept thinking about it.  I really am content with the twenty or so stars I can see each night.  Why in the world is that an adequate number of stars for me?  Why don’t I miss the thousands upon thousands of stars I used to stare at by the hour from my best friend’s trampoline?  The idea that I could carelessly forget something I loved for years made me kind of sad.

Much to my relief, I discovered the reason last night on my drive home from work.  About halfway across the bridge into town,  I was hit with the “look at all of those stars” feeling.  It was so good!  There were little lights all over the place–sparkling in the water, shining from cranes on the shore, coming at me from almost every direction.  I realized that I get that feeling every single night on my drive home from work.  I’m not fickle exactly, I just find the same joy in lots of different sources.

I hope that the next time you’re upset about the bad air quality in your city or the strange orange glow above your home at night, you can look out at the lights and pretend for a few split seconds that they’re all stars on the horizon.