After reading an article about a “starlight reserve”, it got me to thinking: I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I actually saw the Milky Way. And I grew up in a pretty darned rural area of Indiana. How many people of my generation have never seen it? How many of my son’s generation will grow up never knowing the splendor that lies above their heads, if only we’d turn out the lights? And how sad is that?
So, I hereby swear that, at some point in the next year, we will find a camping destination that’s far enough away to introduce him to what we can see of our galaxy with the naked eye…and we’ll just have to hope for good weather.
What’s cool about all this? The cool bit is that someone has realized that it’s important to preserve a natural and unpolluted view of the sky, and is taking steps to make that happen. Yet another reason to save pennies for a trip to NZ within my lifetime.
