According to an online survey in last week’s New York Times, I am a sentimentalist. This is because I want Pluto back as the ninth planet of our solar system.
I have heard the counter arguments. Other “dwarf planets” are Pluto’s size and shape. There are Pluto-like spheres orbiting the sun in the Kuiper belt, a ring in space beyond Neptune, as well as other orbiting objects between Mars and Jupiter. If Pluto is a planet, why not Eris, Ceres, Quanor, Sedna and a dozen others with equally strange names? Why should Pluto be special?
I say that Pluto is special!
I am not sentimental for the Roman god of the underworld or the lovable dog of Disney. Yet, I miss the 3rd grade when I first learned about the solar system. That was a time when I could count on clear, specific answers. A time when I could count the number of planets and count on there being nine of them, always ending with the tiny one that I drew as a blueberry on the edge of my notebook paper.
Maybe I am guilty of sentimentality. I would be less inclined to wax nostalgically about the good old days if I were a different gender or race.
But, in terms of Pluto, my opinion is more than nostalgic. Pluto is the scrappy underdog. I think of the planet as the skinny kid, like me, who preferred to watch the big guys from a distance.
These days, I have a son in 3rd grade. He learned the eight other plants. Good old Pluto is nothing more than a footnote, having been demoted in 2006 which was six years before my son was born.
Many things have changed since my childhood. There are pressures on today’s elementary school students, teachers and staff unlike anything I had to endure. We had tornado drills, but an active shooter was only a part of video games. The other day I saw an unusual looking backpack worn by my son’s classmate. It was bulletproof and designed to be used as a shield.
Today’s students face other new threats as well. Students and essential workers have risked exposure to the coronavirus on a daily basis. Yet, many adults are still unwilling to do simple things to prevent the spread of COVID-19 like wearing masks and getting vaccinated. Are some nostalgic for the pre-pandemic days? But at whose expense?
My fellow columnist Bob Wachs penned a lovely ode to Christmas tradition in these pages. (“Traditions, old and new, big part of Christmas.”) Among other things, he expressed sentimentality for cutting down a Christmas tree with his father and reading the editorial “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” reprinted in this newspaper. Wachs reminded me that some things of the past are far more personal than distant, icy planets — traditions that “revolve around family and friends and faith.”
But a desire to return to the past can get us into trouble, for such an attitude may prevent us from making changes today, including changing our minds.
Though I am an alleged sentimentalist, I recognize that it doesn’t really matter how many planets we count in our solar system. Pluto certainly doesn’t care!
Sentimental or not, what counts is how we take care of one another on this planet.
Andrew Taylor-Troutman is the pastor of Chapel in the Pines Presbyterian Church. His newly-published book is a collection of his columns for the Chatham News + Record titled “Hope Matters: Churchless Sermons.”