Sunday, June 08, 2003

"When my son was four or five years old, he asked one of those interminable questions that children ask: "Why does the sky get dark at night?"

Eager to increase his understanding, I put a lamp in the middle of the floor to act as the sun, got down the world globe, and used a tennis ball for the moon. Then I walked around the "sun", carrying the globe and turning it, explaining how we are suspended in space, constantly moving. It was the universe in a nutshell - sun, earth, moon, stars, seasons.

My son watched the production with silent, squint-eyed attention. When I finished, he said to me, "You don't expect me to believe that, do you?"

Wynette Barton