Catch a Falling Star

This last weekend I took a walk in the dark early one morning. I’m awake anyway. I had read there may be a meteor shower, and who doesn’t love to see a falling star? I saw a couple of them, and yes, I made wishes, but those are secret.

As I walked in the cool darkness, I wondered what people thought of falling stars before scientists told us what they were. I’m sure it seemed mystic and powerful. Perhaps this is why we started wishing on them. But as we now know what those streaks of light that flash through the sky are, are they any less miraculous? I don’t think so. Incredibly, we can see something so far away; that we can understand space as much as we do, besides being beautiful. That our atmosphere protects and provides for us.

These thoughts led me to think of a conversation I had recently with someone who didn’t really believe in the miracles of the Old Testament. He tried to explain away the parting of the Red Sea scientifically. My response was, but does that all make it less miraculous that it happened to save the Israelites? He conceded my point.

While walking in the dark, I couldn’t help singing, “Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket…” And then there is this one, “When you wish upon a star…” I can come up with a song for many occasions. It’s a thing. My family watched and was good at, Name That Tune, but I digress.

I looked up the origin of wishing on a falling star. A second-century mathematician/scientist/ philosopher Ptolemy may have suggested that the gods were watching us through gaps in the sky, and a star would fall through. A wish was more likely to be heard if made while they watched.

There is no point in this ramble about stars. However, I will take the opportunity to hope your wishes come true. I hope you never lose faith in true things. And, I hope you can hear Perry Como singing, Catch a Falling Star today, and you carry a pocketful of starlight.