Chilly Morning

Cold, clear, moonlight spills in the windows. Baby, it's cold outside! The forecast said a low of 5°F (-15°C); what it actually is, I don't know.

The stars are absolutely brilliant this morning, and the waning moon is high. Last night, before the moon rose... the stars were stunning. When I was in Seattle in October, we attended Strawberry Theater Workshop's "The Life of Galileo," which I liked for three reasons:

1. Our friend Andrew Litzky was in it, and dangit, he's good.
2. It's uncomfortably and unfortunately relevant to today's struggle between science -- and sometimes plain common sense -- and the increasingly co-mingled church-run government. In Galileo's day, the church was the government... you see my point.
3. I've always loved imagining what a place was like before electricity. Imagine the world before incandescent lights. Imagine what the stars, and more importantly, the moon and the sun, meant to people.
   

And the cold reminds me of the first season of "West Wing", the Christmas episode, "In Excelsis Deo." The main story is, a homeless person dies in the cold, Toby is contacted by the police because the man was wearing an overcoat Toby had donated, and Toby discovers who the homeless man. It was the first "West Wing" I ever saw, I've now seen them all, and that one is still my favorite.

Cold is good when one is protected from it. We are, and I'm very grateful.