Are We That Different?
Children love the night sky
When my children were younger, they would often point to the night sky and ask me about a star or light. Sometimes it was an airplane, often it was not really a star at all but a planet like Venus or Mars. Sometimes, I didn’t know the answer, and we would look up a star together.
Half of my children are adults now, and the younger two are in high school. They all still have their childlike wonder at the night sky. As we move through spring and into summer, all of us are looking up at the night sky more often.
My children and I have seen solar eclipses, lunar eclipses, meteor showers, comets, and rare planetary conjunctions. We have also seen the International Space Station, drones, and lots of airplanes.
Last night, one of my children stopped by my studio to look out the high, half-circle window above my desk that lets you see the stars on clear nights. They’re nineteen now, but when they asked me about a star, it felt for a moment like they were nine again. We looked up the star and found it was Arcturus.
In the scope of the entire history of the universe, that moment was not even a blip. In the scope of the history of my universe, that moment was precious.
How many parents look at the night sky with their children?
That question immediately brought to mind all the families afraid to look at the sky at night because that’s often when the bombs fall, and the missiles come streaking into buildings.
You and I are not that different from the parents in Iran or Lebanon or Palestine. We love our children. We work hard to provide for them. All of our children are looking up at the same set of stars.
Pope Leo describes the warmongers among us as thieves. They steal the future of families and the lives of children. I’m not religious, but I agree with the Pope.
The question that haunts me as someone who studied law and political theory is, what is my responsibility for my country’s war-making?
What can a poet-cartoonist in a democracy on the ropes do to stop yet another senseless war?
Voting doesn’t seem adequate.
Right now, all I can do is remind the world that all of our children wonder at the same set of stars and gaze up at the same moon.
We aren’t really all that different.
Jason McBride is a poet-cartoonist and best-selling author. If you enjoyed this post and the haiku comics, you will love his book “Wild Divinity,” a collection of over 100 haiku comics. You might also enjoy his monthly physical, snail mail newsletter.
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