Laurie Anderson — The Night Flight From Houston

It was the night flight from Houston, almost perfect visibility You could see the lights from all the little Texas towns far below, and I was sitting next to a fifty-two year old woman who had never been on a plane before, and her son had sent her a ticket and said: "Mom, you've raised ten kids; it's time you got on a plane." She was sitting in a window seat staring out, and she kept talking about the Big Dipper and that Little Dipper and pointing--and suddenly I realized that she thought we were in outer space looking down at the stars And I said: "You know, I think those lights down there are the lights from little towns."