A Sky Full of Stars

They say the best way to view the stars is going to a place without light.

So my dad put my new telescope in the bed of his truck and we drove up to the hills one night.

We got out of the truck and I looked up; the sky was almost purple due to light from the stars. I pulled out the telescope and examinged several closer.

My dad said, "Now you can look at the sky, and sees the stars clearly. Think of all the worlds you are seeing so far away."

But as I reflected on that I wondered if it was really true; I could see the stars in perhaps their purest form but not experience them at the most basic, most human level.

When an astronaut sees earth from space, he does not tell people he has seen the Eiffel Tower or Empire State Building even though they may literally pass through his sight.

So the stars were something like that to me. I could look up at them, certainly, but it was like looking at a picture of the sky where the small things on each star don't really exist, or at least are impossibly far away.