Have you ever seen the aurora borealis? That may not be a familiar term to you, and you may be asking yourself, "Is that a country?" "Is it some kind of strange animal that is nearly extinct that I have somehow missed?" Some of you already know what the aurora borealis is; for those who don't, they are called the northern lights. The northern lights occur in the far northern regions. Recently, while driving in an isolated northern area of the United States, I saw a brilliant display of colored lights that were lighting up the far north and extending for what seemed hundreds of miles. At first I had no idea what the brilliant display of lights was, but residents of a community I was visiting informed me that these lights were the aurora borealis, or northern lights. They illuminated the dar…