Have you ever looked fear in the face and said "I just don't care"?
It's only half past the point of oblivion,
the walk before the run,
the breath before the kiss,
the fear before the flames.
Have you ever felt this way?
Have you ever looked fear in the face and said "I just don't care"?
It's only half past the point of oblivion,
the walk before the run,
the breath before the kiss,
the fear before the flames.
Have you ever felt this way?
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Tuesday, November 20, 2007 @ 4:42 AM
'Pick out your favourite star,' Dad said that night. He told me I could have it for keeps. He said it was my Christmas present.
'You can't give me a star!' I said. 'No one owns the stars'. 'That's right,' Dad said. 'No one else owns them. You just have to claim it before anyone else does,like that dago fellow Columbus claimed America for Queen Isabella. Claiming a star as your own has every bit much logic to it.' I thought about it and realised Dad was right.He was always figuring out things like that. 'I want that one,' I said. Dad grinned.'That's Venus' he said. Venus was only a planet,he went on, and pretty dinky compared to real stars. She looked bigger and brighter because she was much closer than the stars.Poor old Venus didn't even make her own light,Dad said. She shone only from reflected light. He explained to me that planets glowed because reflected light was constant,and stars twinkled because their light pulsed. 'I like it anyway,' I said. I had admired Venus even before that Christmas. You could see it in the early evening,glowing on the western horizon,and if you got up early,you could still see it in the morning,after all the stars had disappeared. 'What the hell,'Dad said. 'It's Christmas.You can have a planet if you want'. And he gave me Venus. We laughed about all the kids who believed in the Santa myth and got nothing for Christmas but a bunch of cheap plastic toys. 'Years from now,when all the junk they got is broken and long forgotten,'Dad said, 'you'll still have your stars.' Adapted from The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls |