I’ve been in the publishing business for 12 years; more if you count college magazines and even longer if you take my summer camp newspaper into account, which you should.… That said, I’ve written on every topic under the sun: murder, arson, album releases, restaurant openings; I’ve interviewed celebrities and presidential candidates; I’ve waxed on addiction, recovery, grief… Sometimes even happiness! Due to the hyper-frenetic nature of the internet, however, many of those pieces are read and forgotten, lost in the digital past.

This Out magazine piece, “Rocky Mountain, Brights and Darks,” is one such piece, and I’m linking it here as the inaugural entry in a sporadic feature called “Archive Diving,” in which I briefly revive a favorite article, blurb or aside from my editorial past.

Here’s a snippet:

Orion and his belt were up there, and so were the dippers, big and little. And if my rudimentary astronomy can be trusted, I saw Gemini. Or one of half-of it, at least. I felt lost in it all, so small and insignificant: the emotions appropriate for staring into such an abyss. Then, in another part of the expansive sky, a strange star caught my eye. Did it flicker with recognition? I don’t think so, no, but it made me think about how thankful I am to know nightfall. Without darkness, there would be no stars at all.

It was very emo, but also, I think, quite lovely.