27/04/2021

One star universe

How many stars can you see at night from your place on earth? I grew up where we saw a lot, the whole sky we thought. Of course, as telescopes and space probes continue to improve, we see universes beyond universes. Who knows? Perhaps there really are parallel universes, one of my favorite ideas, but back to point, asha.

I lived in NYC for a year in my 20s and, if I was lucky, I could see one star at night from my hotel room window and that only through the various kinds of pollution suffocating us. That star immediately became my special friend, a comfort, a wonder and a joy. It still is. I can still see its singular, hazy light. It's still a light in the dark; in spite of everything I may be going through, you may be going through, we may be going through, it still comforts and amazes me. Even if the star itself was extinguished centuries or millennia ago by the forces of time, it still shines in the theatre of my mind, connecting me to something greater, something enduring, a comfort in spite of everything.

Want to see where clear night skies still exist?  Light pollution map



25/04/2021

51 years later

The message was sent  51 years ago. I received it tonight.


Cast Hexagram

    谦  

#15 - Ch'ien - Modesty

THE IMAGE


Within the earth, a mountain:
The image of MODESTY.
Thus the superior man reduces that which is too much,
And augments that which is too little.
He weighs things and makes them equal.

16/04/2021

Notes from Coimbra

photo and poem: asha
Note from the future