I've had a bad day spoiled.
Today I enjoyed Liverpool young players playing against Manchester Utd young players. And yes, we got beat, hence the bad day, but it was a great game (testament to the fact that both teams ended with 9 men each).
And either side of the match, there was a large breakfast, followed by a drink or six in town with friends. And at the end, I was totally in control, and not drunk at all.
This evening, upon returning home, I stood for 10 minutes or so, in the middle of the gardens where I live, looking at the majesty of the night sky. The way the stars are interconnected,the beauty of their movement as the seasons change; realising that the night sky I gazed upon tonight changes tomorrow, and in June and in October and has done for a hundred million years.
(The beauty of astronomy.)
And as I stood there with the heavens in front of me, gazing in awe, an elderly neighbour - putting out his rubbish - asked, "What are you looking at lad?"
"The stars", I answered, and heard him say, "is that right, dummy", before re-entering his house.
I was shocked at his reaction, and I further considered his question. What was I looking at? Well for me, it is the past and the future; where we came from, both as planet and a species, and maybe a little about what our future holds.
It is about the questions we ask constantly about ourselves. Who? What? Where? When?
For that is the nature of starlight.
At this time of the year, we can expect to Ersa Major, cancer and virgo in the night sky, and our ancestors sitting around campfires or fighting bloody battles from time immerorial could expect to see the same. For the light we look upon today (and tomorrow) has burned for ten thousand years and more, with stars shaped in ancient ways, and yet all of which could have in the last five minutes been extinguished, without anyone reading this being alive to know.
And so to that same neighbour, I say what was I looking at? Well how about our past, our future, our now....
....or just twinkling lights in the black sky....dummy.
13/03/2011
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