I grew up in the rural countryside in the '80s, about a 10-minute drive from the nearest city. My skyline looked closer to #5 as a kid.

Nowadays, my night sky in the same location is closer to #7.

As a kid, I loved to lie outside in the grass at night and watch the stars. It was completely dark out then; besides some ambient city lights on the distant horizon, it was completely dark out and you could really focus on the stars.

Now, there are so many lights everywhere. My childhood home has outdoor lights, the telephone pole in the yard has a floodlight on it, my rural neighbors have outdoor lights, etc. My garage has a floodlight that stays very dim and yellow all night, but it turns super bright and blue if movement is detected in my driveway.

There's nowhere I can go that doesn't have at least a little ambient light outside, even out here in the countryside. And as such, my night sky is barely speckled with a few glowing dots and that's it. I miss the night sky of my childhood.

"Once, it was to the sky that I looked for countless twinkling lights, an endless expanse of eyes burning down upon me. It is now, as I watch the streets once again blaze that pallid yellow, that too pure white, that I realize they never burned, but looked back with the love I took from their beauty."

Goddammit, I have enough writing projects as it is, I don't need more inspirations.

I have a strong memory of being at a state campground in California with some friends. It was late at night, we were walking along a road in the campground, surrounded by tall conifer trees, with our flashlights turned off, talking about how dark and spooky it was, we could barely see the road. I casually looked up and saw the stars, probably for the first time in my life so bright and vivid. I whispered, "Look up." We all stopped walking and just stared at the stars for a few minutes.

A few years later, when we had grown up, those same friends and I would go backpacking on our own. I'll never forget the July 4th we spend sitting quietly on a hillside, looking out over the San Joaquin Valley, looking at the stars. Best fireworks show ever.