Once upon a time I lived in a country where there was light pollution – in its cities at least – but matters in South Africa have recently deteriorated to such an extent that now I long for such a luxury. There is, however, one compensation for the present daily blackouts. Stars.
Imagine that, when night fell, there was only the moon. While the sole star was shining, as it should, on another side of the world, overhead, but for the moon, would be dark space. Given that electrical power was reliable and sufficient, life might seem not much reduced, which would be in line with the fascistic government which ruled a world that no glimpse of others above and beyond the one in which we were enclosed.
To live in a world without stars would be to live stillborn. It is the stars which free thought, imagination and the world. Lest we forget, every night offers proof that there is no answer to where the world began and where it ends; every night states that no one knows the reason for the stars being as and where they exist. Stars present each person on this planet the birthright of living in an open-ended world without limits on what a person may think.
Recently, during a bout of loadshedding, I awoke to total darkness. I knew where the window was, but the usual light from the outside street was gone. As I looked into the black within the room around me I felt the clutch of panic, the panic of aloneness, not the lack of someone near me but that I was nowhere and would never would come out of this darkness of which I could see no end. My mind grew terrified at the thought of never regaining a hold on myself.
Had my loadshedding awakening been under a roof of stars, I know that my reaction would have been different. Instead of that claustrophobic panic of non-existence, the canopy above would have opened my eyes, not closed them over as dark space would do.
Stars can, though, engender the sense of being alone in this universe. If one is feeling burdened or anxious, the stars offer no comfort. There they flash, coldly neutral, unaffected by the physical, mental and emotional pains of humanity, indifferent to the random lot of life. An independence and undeniable existence pinches and says, “No, what’s happening is not a dream.”
Some look at the stars and see the dark; others the light. How the ancients beheld the patterns which have been passed down as the Signs of the Zodiac is mysterious to most moderns, with light pollution removing the likelihood of recognising the configurations they saw. With minds unconditioned by the astronomical and physical explanations which we accept, they sought extra-terrestrial causes for the happenings on earth. Their visions have endured, regardless of disproving facts from astronomical discoveries, guiding those who choose to believe them.
Sailors found in the stars positive bearings to a hopeful destination. Having no fear of what they saw above, they used their light as a gateway to the yet unknown. Today, explorers see the stars as guides to the above, as possible destinations, not across the waters of the globe but through the dark vacuum of space.
The thought of “life” on other planets and beyond fascinates. The possibility of finding life out there (raising the question of what criteria will be used to define “life”) is the work of scientists across the world. But the discovery of “life” beyond ourselves would be a problem for our psyche. To find that there is intelligence in other parts of the universe could diminish our cosmic existence: that we are not the sole expressions of life would reduce our significance drastically. We would feel less special, less valuable, another currency floating around the universe, subject to devaluation. Alien life may make for more movies, games and books, but their appeal would diminish as imagination, the chief ingredient in the pleasure of fiction, would no longer pertain.
Personally, I have neither interest nor belief in the idea. Life here is more than enough. The stars post a message that there is and will always be an unknown: it is my privilege to live within it.
Acknowledgement: photo – Cherry Laithang – unsplash.com
