Know how it's hard to get over a fear until you kick its ass or confront it?




Well, I confronted an asteroid the other day.  Not a real asteroid, but a video simulation of an asteroid impacting our planet entitled Asteroid Impact (in HD).

Pink Floyd's "The Great Gig in the Sky" playing in the background, Asteroid Impact (in HD) lifted my spirits.  While man is doing such a horribly slow and sloppy job at doing away with life through an  "accidental" BP oil spill, here was an asteroid that could simply get all the drama over with in the span of approximately 24 hours.  You know, instead of cruelly torturing and murdering sea creatures one by one, plus all other forms of life through the eventual spread of poisons, and doing away with people's livelihoods.

My asteroid-- eventually meteor-- search was inspired by a conversation I had long, long ago with a four-year-old named Alyssa.  She was a student in a classroom I once taught in-

No, wait.  The Head Teacher did the teaching, and I, the assistant, footed all her work.  That's right. 

Ahem.  Sorry. 



Anyway, we were wrapping up Language Arts project time, and the kids had just finished drawing pictures of words that began with the letter M.  Their speedy, clumsy feet walking up to me, they'd handed over their masterpieces along with excited, seconds-long explanations of them.  I noted these and set off to staple their marshmallows, machine guns, moons, monkeys and moms onto our class bulletin board.

Then came Alyssa's picture.

"What'd you draw, honey?" I asked her, my hand lovingly placed on her little shoulder. 




"A meteor!"

"Ahh, great M word!"  I exclaimed, scribbling.  "And why did you choose to draw a meteor?"

"Because, one day, a big meteor is gonna hit the Earth and make it explode... and there's gonna be a huge fire... and..."

"My, my," interrupted a co-worker.  "Such optimistic little ones, aren't they?"