Star Topics

There is a relation between the hours of our life and the centuries of time. As the air I breathe is drawn from the great repositories of nature, as the light on my book is yielded by a star a hundred millions of miles distant, as the poise of my body depends on the equilibrium of centrifugal and centripetal forces, so the hours should be instructed by the ages and the ages explained by the hours.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

Relying on any one disciplinary approach—time-out, negotiation, tough love, the star system—puts the parenting team at risk. Why? Because children adapt to any method very quickly; today’s effective technique becomes tomorrow’s worn dance.
—Ron Taffel (20th century)

Well, when you’re up there and you’re all alone, see, it’s just you and your ship and the sky. And you don’t want anybody up there with you, you don’t want anybody to spoil it. Everything’s kind of still, and you have a feeling that you’re halfway to heaven. You don’t even seem to hear the sound of your own motor, just a kind of a buzz, like the sky was calling you. Like the sky was singin’ you a song.... Yeah. And somehow it’s never eight o’clock up there, it’s always now. And the earth is so far below you that it just doesn’t matter anymore, the sky is the thing that’s important. The sky is your pal. You feel like nudging it and saying, “Hiya sky, how are you today? And how was the old moon the last time you saw him?” The wind drift comes straight off the morning star and beautiful white clouds drift towards you. And they’re like old friends. Friends you never want to say goodbye to. And you see a patch of clear air in between ‘em and you duck in and out, like a porpoise rollin’ in the ocean. And then you say to yourself, “Boy, oh boy, this is the only time a man is really ever alive. It’s the only time he’s really ever free.” The old sky smiles back at you and says, “Boy, you’re right. You’re dead right.”
—Dalton Trumbo (1905–1976)