Big Sky at Night

One of my favorite things about travelling by car cross country was watching the sky change. I loved the sky out west--Montana, South Dakota, Wyoming. It is called Big Sky Country for a reason. The term doesn't do it justice; no words I can write do it justice. I know this because I read about the Western sky several times before I ever saw it for myself. Still, I fancy myself a decent writer so it's my nature to try anyway.

It's best at night. The stars are endless. The density of stars in any one particular spot is one hundred times greater than you see at any other part of the country I've ever been in. (And I've been around, believe me. Unless someone from Kentucky or Mississippi cares to disagree, I have a pretty good leg to stand on here.) And all around each single star, pushing that star out of the sky and almost within your grasp, is the opposite of light, the blackest, most nothing black. When you add this to the sheer largeness of the Western sky, it's just breath-taking. Everywhere you turn, seemingly to infinity there are stars, stars, stars. And you know that there is a whole other infinity behind you, and one off to your left and one off to your right, and one above your head.

If I could stand in the middle of nothingness in Southwestern Wyoming in the middle of a summer night, drop my head back against my spine so I could gaze straight up, and spin round and round like a kid forever, I think I would launch myself and fly into the infinity. The sky could just consume me and soon enough, below there would be another infinity to go with all the others that I had seen before.

I am in love with the Western sky at night.

Once in awhile, the sky here in little old Connecticut gives me an itty bitty glance backward to those times I spent out west. It's only a tiny taste, enough to bring back memories and whet my appetite; enough to make me recall the feeling of multiple infinities all around; enough to make me itch to gas up Professor Bob and go. Just go.

Tonight was one of those nights. It was a good day, and the sky was beautiful tonight. For a moment after I got out of Prof. Bob, before I walked inside, I thought, if I squint just right, it's almost like I'm there. It's been a good week. A busy week, which I will write more about later. But a good week, and tonight I could feel the millions of infinities that stretch out before me, waiting for me to launch myself among them.

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P.S. to Neil-I'll write you tomorrow. Computer broken at home. Will explain. Sorry.