Starry Nights, Trampolines, Childhood

by John Garvey, DarkSky Colorado President, [email protected]

My kids and I sometimes play a game where we jump on the trampoline and see who can go the longest without smiling. Nobody can last very long. It was inspired by the song “Trampoline,” by Forest Sun, which goes like this:

“It’s impossible not to smile when you’re bouncing on a trampoline.”

This is basically true. Try it.

As a boy, I spent countless hours jumping on the trampoline in my family’s backyard. Sometimes, in the summer, I’d sleep on it. This was perfectly safe (and fun!) back when floodlights were considered bad manners. And although I can hardly believe it now, the Milky Way was actually visible from my backyard. That was a big part of the appeal.

These days, I live in a house with five kids, and we have a big trampoline out back. It is great fun, but nobody ever feels tempted to sleep on it. Our neighborhood is too bright at night. There are perhaps 30 percent as many stars visible as there were 30 years ago. 

I first learned about the Milky Way by viewing it with wonder from my backyard. My children learned about it by hearing me talk about it. Which version of childhood sounds better to you?

The negative impacts of light pollution go well beyond depriving our children of this experience. Light pollution harms public health, quality of life, and the environment in too many ways to summarize here. 

And yet, on the spectrum of the world’s problems, light pollution is a relatively easy fix. 

It’s getting worse, on the whole. Yet DarkSky Colorado is reversing light pollution in many communities—and we will eventually turn the whole ship around!

Next time you think about the simple pleasures of childhood, or jump on a trampoline, remember to think of the stars. They are indifferent, remote, emotionless, and enormous. Yet they have nourished us—culturally, emotionally, and socially—for millennia.

The sight of the cosmos will continue to enrich our lives as long as we have the inclination and ability to look up and appreciate it.

I hope one day to look out on my grandkids sleeping on a trampoline.

Be part of a DarkSky future by giving to Colorado Gives