Do They Even Need A Christmas?
Even though the night is clear, and sown with more stars than normally allowed this close to one of man’s more colossal achievements of a city, still, I cannot see it. I stand in the back garden staring up at fistfuls of shimmering diamonds casually tossed over the dark velvet cloak of a sky, looking for another blue ball with swirls of icing white - a sister, a twin, of my own.
But I am disappointed.
Well, I didn’t really expect to find it.
Too far away, after all.
But still.
I had been sitting in the center of Christmas, midst a swirling flurry of red and green - a bit of baking flour on my cheek, a snippet of ribbon stuck to my sleeve - when I first heard the news. Another planet had been found. This one a mirror image of our own, where water flowed and life could presumably flourish.
Information such as this has a profound effect on a dreamer.
It ensnared my thought for days.
So very, very far away .........
do other blue eyes watch the sky, eyes just like my own?
Do other lips sing carols?
Other hands hold other hands?
Do they even need a Christmas?
Is it necessary to remind them not to lie, to hate, to kill?
Would we have to explain war, or illness, or fear?
Would they look at us in horror, or too well recognize our state?
Or was the apple never eaten?
Did they never fall from grace?
The possibilities are amaranthine for this unknown kin wandering round their own blue planet. It floodlights the mind to imagine. I wrap my scarf a bit tighter round my neck as I leave the speckled darkness of the garden, climbing the back stairs with Edward close at my heels. He never worries about such things, I know. Contentment weaves a cocoon around him and he shares it liberally with me. Just sitting beside his quiet soul provides a balm to my own and I am grateful for his sweet example.
But still, I can’t help but look up over my shoulder as I enter the warmth of the house.
So far, far away...
It is always summer, never winter?
Do they even need a Christmas?
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You can read more about this newly discovered planet,
found in what scientists call the Goldilocks Zone (I love that), HERE.
