Looking at the stars

Little Willie Bjornstad was neither of those things.  He wasn't little and he was not Swedish, but he was Willie and he loved to study the stars.  This interest of his was such a passion that his father purchased a powerful, high end telescope for him for his birthday.  Willie was ecstatic.

It followed, as was expected, that Willie spent every extra moment at his bedroom window, his eye to his telescope.  Finally, the big moment arrived, the time when all of his hard work would pay off.  MIT was having an astronomy test/contest.  The winner would receive a full ride scholarship for a four-year degree.  Of course, Willie jumped at the chance.

One week after the contest, Willie received the results in the mail.  The tension could be cut with a knife.  Willie's parents, family and friends all gathered around.  Willie opened the envelope, then sat down the envelope and walked away, without a word.  Confused, his father picked up the envelope, considered the letter, and then spoke.  "There must be a mistake," he said, with concern in his voice.  "It says here that Willie scored a 12% on the test.  I don't understand."  Willie returned to the confused fray with a Pepsi in hand.  "It doesn't make sense, Dad," he said.  "Nothing on the test was even remotely familiar.  It all seemed completely foreign."  "Is something wrong with your telescope?"  Willie's father asked.  "No, it works perfectly fine, as far as I can tell," Willie answered with some trepidation.  "I wasn't going to say anything, but the telescope doesn't seem to do much."  "That's even more troubling, son," he replied.  "I paid a lot of money for that telescope.  You should have said something long ago.  Let's go take a look at it."  So the two of them tromped upstairs and entered the boys’ room.  Bending over slightly, Willie's father put his eye to the eyepiece.  He pulled back quickly and reached up to remove the lens cover.  "Wait!" Willie shouted, "don't do that!"  Confused, Willie's father asked why.  "Because having that cover off just confuses things.  With the cover on, I can think about what the stars and planets are really like.  Seeing them is deceptive."
That evening, Willie's father listed the telescope on eBay and signed up for Netflix. 

Something things are too far-gone to bother with.