When The Stars Speak

It had been a bummer of a day. Jake had not only flunked his astronomy exam, he had also lost his girl friend when he claimed to be smarter than her. In Jake’s mind none of this was his fault and, feeling sorry for himself, he purchased a six pack of beer and found a secluded park bench near the campus rose garden. As he opened his third beer he noticed a single bright star in the darkening sky and impulsively started to recite a poem he had learned as a child. “Star light star bright, first star I see tonight, I wish I may I wish I might……………..” Before he could finish, Jake was rudely interrupted by a deep commanding voice. “You don’t really think stars grant wishes…Do You?” Jake looked around. There was no one there. “Up here”, the voice said. “You started the conversation now finish it!” Jake looked back at the star and remained silent. “Yeah, smart ass, its me, I can tell your enjoying a few of my photons, so what the hell do you want?” Jake muttered a few unintelligible words, his gaze transfixed on the brightening star. “Speak up man. I can’t hear you!” Jake had always thought of stars as friendly twinkling lights, but this star was an angry SOB. “I was just wishing,” Jake replied. “It didn’t mean anything.” “You’ve got that right.” The star replied. “You think of yourself as something important and me as a tiny bright spot in the sky, but you have it backwards. You are the tiny spot and I am an enormous nuclear furnace. I was already shining long before your solar system formed and am blasting radiation in all directions, up, down, to the sides and behind me. The tiny bit of light you see is an infinitesimally small part of all my radiation and there are millions of life forms on your tiny planet and on millions of other planets looking at me from all directions and only you and your species assume, that since you can see me, you own me. You depend on a star you call Sun, which in my opinion is a really dumb name, for the energy that allows you to live, and are made of stuff created in the belly of stars long dead. There are only a few billion of you humans. There are millions of billions of stars, more stars than all the grains of sand on your planet, and yet you claim the right to pick out one of us and get wishes granted. You really need to get a grip on reality!” Jake sat very still. The sun was just beginning to peak over the campus buildings behind him. The six pack was empty and the stars were gone. Jake’s inflated ego had been flattened. He went to his astronomy professor and begged to take the test again. His professor smiled and shook his head No. Jake then found his girl friend and asked for forgiveness, she told him to get lost. Later that night Jake crossed the campus after his last class keeping one eye closed. He glanced quickly at the wishing star but kept his mouth shut and quickly looked away. ................................................... Before we were blinded by city lights and before we viewed the stars again through telescopes, man marveled at the star filled sky and imagined Gods revealing themselves, outlined by dots of light. Before the stars began to speak to us through science they were benevolent lights in the heaven put there to guide and aid mankind. Now that we understand their language they are revealing themselves as massive balls of fire, exploding with forces that echo throughout the universe, collapsing into black holes, revealing their ages, showing off their planets, and asking us to put our self agrandizing egoes aside, and yet, we like Jake, close our minds and ignore our new perspectives and the mandates imposed by being a part of the marvelous spectacle that surrounds us. We are born of the dust of exploding stars and gathered by gravity and chemistry to become the vessel of nature that allowes her a mirror in which to view herself. We are indeed priviledged, but we are not free to ignore what the stars are telling us. They have waited a very long time for us to listen.