The Filmstrip, 1964 Mrs. Karian showed us a filmstrip about the solar system. In eight billion years, she said, the earth will fall into the sun and be obliterated. You burst out crying, and couldn’t stop. Mrs. Karian sent you to the boys’ room to get over it. What are eight billion years when you are six? I probably heard never , or at least I don’t have to worry about this right now . But maybe you heard when you’re older , or even sometime soon . And maybe the newness of your being cried out against the terror of not being. Wait!— I’m only just— but Mrs. Karian knew that a sensitive heart is something to be hidden in the boys’ room. She knew that shame needs to be learned early. She knew that billions are nothing to cry about. But she was wrong. The billions of children who have died on this earth rise up in ghastly chorus to confirm your intuition— war, genocide, cruelty, famine, plague, natural d