This past Christmas eve I slept in the house I grew up in. Directly beside my bed is a window, through which is a field, past which are woods, far behind which are mountains. I drank way too much coffee way too late with my family (they kept offering), and I couldn’t fall asleep. One of the times I opened my eyes, I thought I saw a light moving in the sky. I dismissed it at first, but then decided to keep my eyes open a while to investigate. I saw it again. It was as if there was a massive lighthouse off in the mountains, straight ahead of me. The massive beam of light would pass over my house, then circle around again, over and over. For the first few minutes I thought “Maybe this is the start of an experience I won’t remember this morning” and tried to cement it in my mind so that maybe I would. Standing in front of the massive windows in the living room after I had been watching the light for a couple of hours, I realized it was just something that I would never have an explanation for. The thought that maybe there’s more to this memory than I have access to seems purely academic.
