Wishing on a Star

Good Morning,

As a young child, stars were something you marveled at, or wished upon and if you were lucky enough to see a shooting star, well that was really something special.

It comes to mind that Jiminy Cricket was part of these halcyon days when he sang, “When you wish upon a star” in the 1940
Disney movie Pinocchio.  The gist of the song was that when you wished upon a star, it made no difference who you are, your dreams would all come true.  What a wonderful thought and something a child could put their hopes on.  I wasn’t around when the movie first came out because, well… I wasn’t born until 1945, but the story and the song remain an embedded memory of my youth.  Maybe movies and stories stuck around longer back then.  We refer to them as “classics” now.  It was a time of innocence when the Moon was still made of cheese and Mars really did have “Martians”.

Later and as I grew older and wiser, my approach to all of this changed and as the sun would set I would watch the sky for the first star to appear.  (I later found out it was usually Venus) You had to be quick most times, as they would come out fast.  Seeing the first star, I would recite the invocation “Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, have this wish I wish tonight”.  I would then make a wish.  Of course the wishes would change over the years, but there was always hope that they would be fulfilled, especially when they concerned a girl.  I suppose the power of positive thinking played a part in the fulfillment of some of those wishes just as they would today.  Truth be known, I still recite it sometimes in my head.  It wouldn’t be “cool” for a guy to be doing that kind of thing out loud so keeping it in the head also keeps my family from having to have me committed.

It is kind of sad really when our childhood innocence is ripped away and we have to face the realities of the adult world.  When in 1969, Neil Armstrong’s footprint on the moon revealed to the world that it was really just covered with Moon Dust and the cheese along with the “Man in the Moon” had long since disappeared.  When the Mars Phoenix Lander revealed a rather unpopulated planet and “Marvin the Martian” was nowhere to be seen and most likely never was there.  When the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny and Santa Claus all have retired to Florida and we back home are left the Dentist Bills, trips to the Veterinarian and Revolving Charge Accounts from Christmas Last…and when that star overhead is most likely a communication satellite repeating millions of Tweets, text messages and emails every second so we can stay in touch with ourselves, it becomes increasingly difficult to remember those times.

I’m not saying that I dislike technology…far from it, as that is how I have made my living for the past 46 years.  I actually embrace it maybe even more than most do, but with knowledge also comes the realities that like an acid dissolve the myths we had embraced in a simpler time.  As our lives become more complicated and we try to jam 25 hours into a day, it is sometimes important to step back, pause and maybe when no one is looking, to let the kid out.  Forget for even just a little while, the expected norms and be free from the cage of responsibility we managed to build for ourselves.  To quote Timothy Leary “Turn on, tune in and drop out”.  Unlike Timothy, you can actually do this without drugs, but it takes a bit of imposed irresponsibility, or at least, what would be perceived as irresponsibility by others to pull it off.

Who knows…maybe even wish upon a star.  After all, I’m convinced that there is a lot more out there than we will ever know, understand or for that matter even comprehend if we saw it.

If you have ever bought a lottery ticket, your odds are probably better with the star and like when you bought the lottery ticket, there is always hope, only the wish is free.

Love, Dad

Images: Jiminy Cricket – Disney   Marvin the Martian – Peacepipea