No, this isn’t a reminiscence about viewing Van Gogh’s painting at MoMA, it’s a memory of stars.

As a city person, seeing the starts is very special. There is so much ambient light that when I look in the night sky, I am lucky to be able to pick out a few constellations.

When I was a child we used to go to a place way out in the country in upstate New York. My father took me out into an open field, to show me the Milky Way. I was amazed at how many stars there were spilling out in all their splendor across the night sky. What a revelation it was – to see something that is always there but seldom seen.

The times when I’ve seen the Milky Way as an adult have been too few and far between. But I have some favorite travel memories of the stars.

In Morocco, we stayed at a tiny oasis in the desert. I walked outside at night and away from a bright light they had as a marker for travelers and I could see the stars in the velvety sky… the Milky Way spread out before me.

I have a memory of flying into Tahiti after midnight. We took a ramshackle taxi to our hotel. I remember how grubby the cab was… the windows were greasy, but I could see lights. It took me a while to realize that the lights I was seeing were stars in the Milky Way! The view out the taxi window was straight into the middle of the galaxy. One night, we went out onto our dark balcony and drank champagne to the stars in honor of Dom Perignon’s description of champagne: “It’s like drinking stars!”

The most recent view I had of the Milky was from the beach in Kauai. I was taken by surprise by the stars… what a treat to see the Milky Way again! It was like a surprise visit from an old friend.

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