When I was 12 I asked my teacher why the sun goes out at night, and he told me
”The sun doesn’t go out, it stays in place still burning at the center of the solar system. It just looks like it sets because the Earth rotates around its axis while orbiting the sun. The sun will only go out billions of years from now, and then we won’t be able to live on Earth anymore.”
When I was 8 I asked my father why the sun goes out at night, and he told me
“It gets dark because the sun stops looking at us when it goes to shine on other people.”
When I was 4 I asked my toy stuffed elephant why the sun goes out at night, and he/she/it told me
”Because otherwise we’d forget how beautiful it was when it shone down on a gentle summer afternoon. Because it’s hard work, being the light of the world. Because there needs to a time for mystery, for the monsters under our bed, for scary shadows and sore shins. Because we need nights to dream in. Because after its beautiful aria, there needs to be some time for the stars to sparkle and sing. Because otherwise wolves couldn’t howl at the moon, and fireflies couldn’t make the world look like it was smoldering, and roosters couldn’t crow in jubilation at the first rays of morning.
”The sun goes out so that we can hug each other good night.”
