On Friday, the year 4 class I taught was learning about space. One girl (whose name sounded like a singular form of this product, so what hope was there?) was particularly getting on my nerves because she saw nothing interesting in the topic. I love reading about space. How could she not find the gas giants fascinating?
Jupiter is my favorite planet. It is by far the biggest. Twice as big as all the others combined. It's basically all gas. I imagine sinking down through denser and denser atmosphere. What would happen when you reached the core? Gravity would have pulled you that far... then what? They have some wild weather on Jupiter. But how would a wind storm feel when you're already in thick gas? Jupiter has really long years (12 Earth years) and short days (about 10 hours long). That makes about 10,512 Jupiter days in a Jupiter year. Time would be a different thing.
See? It's fascinating. I feel sorry for that particular girl. If you can't find joy in space, what interest is there in life for you?
A couple of years ago, I was thinking about Jupiter and spun this fairy-tale like song lyric. I still like it. Jupiter is a kind of dream land and at the same time a figure who herself dreams...
Jupiter Dreaming
“Slip through worlds away awhile,”
Said sparkling eyes, defiant smile.
“Away to where impossible is true.”
“Jupiter, so far away,
Tomorrow there is yesterday.
And I can be with you,
And I can be with you.”
Jupiter dreaming...
Laughing, sinking through the air
I kissed her lips and kissed her hair
And watched as moon by moon came spinning by.
“Who cares for water, earth, or trees?”
She said, “Who cares for air to breathe?
For I am here with you,
For I am here with you.”
Jupiter dreaming...
Grown up thoughts inside my head
Drowning dreams until they're dead
And Jupiter a million miles away.
But still she dreams and will arise
Her golden light will fill the sky
And I will be with her,
And I will be with her.
Jupiter dreaming...
SAR 2007
Does space do it for you? Where is your dream land?
For a while I really wanted to be an astronaut so I could go play on the moon - then I found out that they no longer send people to the moon. :-(
ReplyDeleteFunny - I was only looking at a book on Space with Ben at Kindy last week. He was really interested in it all - planets, stars, space ships, space stations etc. Although the book was slightly out of date - it still listed Pluto as a planet.
ReplyDeleteThe books the kids were reading at this particular school were published so long ago that they were still looking forward to Halley's comet (1986!). But, still, it was interesting... if anything was!
ReplyDeleteI'm a big disappointed that pluto is no longer a planet. Just a lonely bit of orbiting rock...
Yeah I love space. I love the Aror... Aruar.. A.. The Northern Lights. So mysterious and amazing.
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