Sunshine on my Shoulders

This autumn has been a really nice one for sunny days. My favorite days in the world are the days where you look up and see nothing but blue, not a cloud in sight. The last couple of weeks I've been treated to several days like that! Monday in particular was great because it was cloudy and overcast when I drove to school, but by the time my classes were over, it had all blown over and there was nothing but the vast blue bowl of sky overhead. It's such a gorgeous sight to see the trees and buildings on campus sharply etched against that flawless blue background. And not to mention my love affair with the Sun. I love the Sun; clouds can be somewhat interesting, but cloudy days make me grumpy and headachy. Sunshine makes me happy. I read a book once, by my favorite author Robin McKinley, called Sunshine. It is about a girl who loves to cook and loves the Sun (so naturally I identify strongly with it to begin with), but then it turns out that she derives a subtle sort of magic power from the Sun (for instance, she heals faster laying out in the Sun). This makes her a very effective foil for the vampire character she befriends later in the novel. It's a pretty creepy book, but it's overall just an adapted Beauty and the Beast story. Anyway, the point is, sometimes I feel like maybe I derive a little power from the Sun, too. :)

And now that I'm in astronomy class, I know a lot more about how the sun works. I understand H to He fusion, and radiative and convective energy transfer, and sunspots, and the solar wind, etc. I can also tell you that in five billion years it will exhaust its hydrogen supply, and then its outer layers will expand so far that it will swallow up Mercury, Venus, and Earth in its red giant stage. (Theoretically, of course.) This doesn't take away any of its poetic beauty for me. On the contrary, it just makes me more amazed and more appreciative of the amazing God who created such a wondrous star, and then placed it in a universe in which it is very mediocre. "The stars proclaim the work of His hands..."