Poor Pluto!
My kid and I talk about space often. We’ve discussed planets, moons, stars, meteors, asteroids, gravity, (supermassive) black holes, and even how stars, planets and galaxies form. We’ve also had the »Pluto talk« recently. As we were playing (something space-themed, I presume), we stumbled upon the fact that Pluto isn’t considered a planet anymore, but that it once was. My kid looked at me with profound sadness behind his eyes and asked me: »Why isn’t Pluto a planet anymore? Poor Pluto!« I explained to him how small Pluto actually is (only 70% of Earth’s moon) and how it doesn’t even rotate around its axis (together with it’s moon Charon they form a double planetary system) and he listened to it all carefully. Even though he understood (as much as a 4,5 year old, that wants to be an astronaut/space police/doctor/construction worker can), he was still very sad. Poor Pluto! What is it about Pluto that makes a small boy want it to be a planet?
»Like most of us, he’s heard a lot of stories.«
I’m pretty sure there’s people fighting to get Pluto reinstated as a planet. Good for them! But we all know, in all honesty, that it’s a mute effort - Pluto is not a planet, even though for some of us, it once was. Our solar system used to have 9 planets, now it has 8! It feels like a downgrade. I somehow care too. But my kid was born way after Pluto lost it’s official classification as a planet. He shouldn’t care. It shouldn’t be that important. He has however, like most of us, heard a lot of stories. Stories where an underdog wants to overcome an impossible hurdle. And only by persevering, learning in failing, the little thing that once couldn’t, now can.
»It’s going to be OK.«
But in reality, Pluto will never be a planet (again). To my kid, that was injustice. It just wasn’t fair! His own experiences of how it feels to be treated unfairly, were mirrored in an ex-planet’s unfortunate fate. And so, in the end, it wasn’t about Pluto at all. It wasn’t even about him having a Pluto the dog toy as a baby. It was about needing a hug and hearing: »It’s going to be OK.« He was just having a human experience and being reminded how sometimes we hurt. Triggered by Pluto.
Now imagine a lifetime’s worth of triggers and associations stored in a grown up’s brain. No need to imagine actually, we each have one of those. We all have human experiences daily. And we react to things intensely, forgetting where our personal triggers came from. So sometimes we too, just need a hug and to hear: »It’s going to be OK.« Even if it’s by no one else than ourselves. And especially when it’s as sad as when Pluto lost its status as a planet.
