The magnificent rock

When I lived in New York I loved going to the Museum of Natural History. One of my favorite exhibits was the Cape York meteorite. The meteorite is four and a half billion years old. That's older than the Earth; older even than the sun. Its surface is pitted, pocked, and scarred; creased, lined, and crumpled. I used to imagine that it contained every ancient face that ever lived and died. And it's dark, the way a moonless night is dark. It's as dark as space.

Imagine touching something that old.

I've touched it.