Is the Milly Way a candy bar?

Yes and so much more.

In 1923, Frank C. Mars in Minneapolis, Minnesota invented the Milky Way candy bar. Wikipedia says that “It was the first commercially distributed filled chocolate bar.” In the U.S., this tasty treat is made of chocolate-malt nougat topped with caramel and covered with milk chocolate. Outside the U.S., the caramel is left off. Although opinions differ, the official position is that the name and taste were taken from the milkshake not the Earth’s galaxy.

What is the Earth’s galaxy?

Our home planet, the Earth, is part of a larger grouping of stars and planets. This larger grouping is called a galaxy, and it is separated by relatively unpopulated space from other galaxies in the universe. The universe contains all the galaxies and the spaces and miscellanies in, between, among and beyond the galaxiies. In all, it is quite a wonderfully complicated arrangement.

Our home galaxy is called the Milky Way. When we get away from the city lights, the Milky Way arches across the sky as a dim milky band glowing with the light of 200-400  billion stars and at least as many planets. The way or road of the milky band of our many neighboring stars is appropriately called the Milky Way, and it is somehwat the color in the dark night sky of a vanilla milkshake. All the individual stars we see are part of our galaxy, but the massed shimmering band of billions of stars glowing against the black of space is a special treat. It is the Milky Way, it is our galaxy and it is a sight I hope soon to see in the mountains of Colorado.

On the trail this morning, I looked up and saw trees, bushes, dirt, plants and flowers. In that single glance, I stopped and I saw in my mind as many points of matter and light as all the stars in the Milky Way. A mother stopped to adjust a child in a stroller. Watching as I walked by, I realized that in that child’s head are more points of light, energy and thought than all the stars and planets combined in the whole of our galaxy. A runner passed and startled me. I scanned the people moving on both sides of the trail. And, it hit me. We all do. In my head, I heard it again. We all do. We are each more complex, involved and diversified than the entirety of the Milky Way.

It is a great candy bar and a great galaxy, but we are so much more.

Have a bright day and enjoy the light.

Grandpa Jim