More Missed Meteors

Last week the Taurids and Leonids joined the list of meteor showers I've missed this year because of clouds and rain.

One night I saw clear sky through the bathroom window on the west side of the house, so I wrapped up and went out. Once outside, however, I found that clouds covered the southern, eastern, and northern skies, and within minutes, the western sky as well.

Those few minutes, however, allowed time to make two observations. First, hazy clouds, although thin enough for the brightest stars to shine through, prevent fainter stars—and meteors—from being seen. Second, hazy conditions diffuse the light of a distant city, causing more interference than usual.

This symbolizes for me the problem of hazy thinking, which I define as thinking unhampered by a concept of truth and error. Hazy thinking is willing to accept every idea as plausible, and unwilling to differentiate between right and wrong. This thinking both obscures clear truth (like the haze does the fainter stars) and enhances false ideas (like the diffused city light.)

Some people are criticized for being close-minded. These people see life in black and white. They have a standard or measure by which they judge good and bad. They sometimes appear rigid or judgmental, however, there are things they can see more clearly than people whose minds are open to every conflicting idea.

If I must err on one side or the other, I'll take seeing life in black and white, and hope the clouds clear for the Geminids in December.