Perseid meteor shower

I fully intended to drive outside our little town and watch the meteors tonight. I didn't count on storm warnings and a sky full of clouds.

If a comet called Swift-Tuttle didn't leave debris in its wake, and if the Earth didn't travel through that stream every August, there would be no Perseid shower.

The falling stars look so simple, so pristine. I absolutely adore watching them--and sure hope to catch them on another night before the shower ends on about the 24th. The phenom isn't that uncomplicated, though. Think of everything that has to come together: the comet, the Earth, a more recent bunch of dust that fell off the comet in1862 that accounts for most of the shooting stars we see. The moon has to be fairly dim, too, not full, or we can't see many.

Good writing is like that, I think. A lot of elements have to come together, not necessarily in a neat and tidy way, to produce writing that, when the reader reads it, looks effortless. Simple, pristine. That's my goal! To write like a shooting star.

Photo from http://dcist.com/2012/08/perseid_august_2012.php used by Creative Commons license