It would take several decades—and the slow unfolding of a thirty-three-year cycle—for astronomers to understand the true nature of the Leonid meteor showers that happen each November. But whether this starfall brought about a sudden awareness of the grand scale of the universe, an urgent call to the rigorous pursuit of the scientific method, or a renewed respect for the wrathful might of God, here was enchantment, falling like rain on expectant rooftops, demanding attention and making the humans below wonder about the relatedness of all things, the strange machinations of the universe.
