The Perseids

"What the hell was that?" someone at the table says, and looks up from their beer. We've dragged a table that seats about 12, closer to the water's edge. It's better to get drunk next to the waves. The night is dark. On this particular island off the east coast of Malaysia there's not a cloud in the sky ~ or a light in the cabins. Electricity is sparse.

We drink the beer fast before the ice in the buckets melt.

"It's the Perseids" says some guy from Denmark. There's always a brainiac in the group that seems to know a little bit of everything. Every drinking circle needs their Cliff Claven.

Before anyone has a chance to ask him to explain; it begins. A meteor shower pours through the atmosphere. It's the most majestic display of lights that I've ever seen.

"Are we safe?" says one girl from Holland. The brainiac tells her that they will all be burned by the Earth's atmosphere miles before reaching us.

So we watch, in awe. The most magnificent display of shooting stars one will ever see. They chase towards earth with brilliant tails that are miles long -- almost spermlike. There must be hundreds; but they look like millions streaking across the black sky. It happens during the second week of August every year, but those on the northern edge of the equator seem to have the best view.

From time to time, the bigger ones would "pop". We'd all jump from our seats, then raise our sweaty beer bottles and 'cheers' to the meteors. It lasted for over 20 minutes; streams and streams of hundreds of shooting stars burning up the sky above us.

"Make a wish!" Martha says to me, as we giggle a bit more from the whole experience. She links her arm in mine and I close my eyes; the first thing that comes to my head is the notion of crazy romantic love -- burning like something from a Tolstoy novel; but without the suicidal plunge at the end.

"You make one too!" I say to her. She's one of my best friends, and after my tenure in Japan she flew half-way around the world to travel with me before school started again in September.

"OK," she says. I watch as the brilliance of the meteors hundreds of miles above us, light up her face with streaks of pink, purple, white, blue and green. I hope, as I watch and sip from my beer that I never forget this moment. God, in all his brilliance, illuminating our little beach party. And as a drinking game ensues from the "pops" of the larger meteors colliding with Earth, we laugh.

Because, despite all the oppression and anger in the world -- its natural wonders always aim to warm our hearts and delight our souls.

Daft-Punk-One-more-time-*R*
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