This week’s Unbound selection coincides with a particularly bittersweet movement in history’s sweeping composition. Since the beginning of time, we have looked up at the sky, hoping to find answers in its vast depths. Myths and religions have formed around our world’s “rooftop,” and if the stars have not exactly offered concrete truths, they have certainly been the mother of human imagination. With the Space Race of the 1960s, we touched infinity. Rockets and shuttles burst through the limits of the known world, and our dreams grew taller. Then, on July 8 of this year, America launched its final shuttle mission, ending an era of space exploration. Political and economic motivations for this decision abound, of course relating to necessary, human concerns. Yet this prose piece by Badgerdog writer J. J. proves that our dark romance has not come to an end. Space, and its appealingly inhuman qualities, continues to enthrall and amaze us. Looking up, we can almost see everything. Congratulations on your great work, J. J.!
Space
—inspired by Anselm Kiefer’s Sternenfall (Falling Stars) at the Blanton Museum of Art
I think space is scary and awesome because we do not know very much about space, and what if there was life in another galaxy living with us? It is awesome because there’s a lot to learn in the world and a lot that can happen. I would like to learn more about the solar system and more about new kinds of science. I would like to use a rocket to see how many different galaxies there are. I see numbers on glass. I see it is big, about twenty feet tall. I see bumps in the universe.
J. J., fourth grade, Badgerdog Creative Writing Summer Camp at the Austin Waldorf School
unbound 
Dear J.J.,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the great mystery that we call space. Sometimes just a few words can be unforgettable, like the first time you see a shooting star or a meteor shower. I have a feeling I will always remember your beautiful phrase, “bumps in the universe.” What a charming way to put it.
Write on!
Erin
Hey everybody! The May 5th 2012 full moon is a Super Moon! In case you don’t know the Super moon is a moon that is full at the point in its orbit at which it is closest to the earth – AKA perigee-syzygy.
The Perigee of course is the term for being closest to the earth and the syzygy is the term for the alignment of the Sun, the Earth and The Moon (in that order) creating the full moon!
The moon appears about 16% larger but its relative as you don’t have anything to gauge it against.
Just a fun FYI!
Mark