| Yes it has helped me to look beyond the stars eyes into their souls, to hear the need of these celestial objects to talk and to discover life lessons that are truly universal. When I look up to the sky I often remember that things never appear to be they way they seem. Think about looking at our solar system. We see objects that produce their own light and objects that only reflect light, what we could call: the 'Shining and the Shined-Upon'. In the first category are the objects that burn their own interior fuel, preeminently stars, as well as the objects that burn from the friction they create as they race through gasses, like meteorites ignited by the friction with our atmosphere. And in the second category are all the heavenly bodies that bathe in the light transmitted to them like our planet. It would be easy to claim that the objects which produce their own light are the heroines and heroes of the firmament -- they are the self-starters, dependent on no one but themselves for energy, for their very existence. In the human population they remind us of the great innovators and luminaries; the Da Vincis and Marconis, the Curies and Edisons, the Plankes and Einsteins. These men and women ignited themselves; they drew on their own inner resources to create something new and previously unimaginable. They dared to shine among those who did not produce their own light. As if in testimony to their greatness, these self-generating heavenly bodies are surrounded by lesser, non-luminous objects that orbit them like acolytes. But there is so much more to the story than simply The Shining and The Shined-Upon, the heroes and the acolytes. The synergy between these two kinds of celestial objects is one of the primary miracles of the universe. We on Earth, the Shined-Upon, are in the thrall of our great shining star, the Sun. We are eternally dependent on it for our energy, for all the life that blooms and swims and walks on our surface. But it is also true that this life could never arise on a burning object, not on any star. Not a single life-building molecule could survive on the Sun with its surface temperature of 5,800 degrees Kelvin. The miracle of organic life requires us, The Shined-Upon -- our cool, unkindled surface, our fertile, incubating waters, our steady, ever-dependable circuit neither too dangerously close nor too dangerously far from the burning Sun. For me the lesson here is simple, though always important to be reminded of. Every role is equally important. We are all in the same game and we are all dependent on one another. But there is another lesson for me in all of this, one that easily escapes my consciousness in my daily life, and that is, "Do not be blinded by the shining light of a star. It may be hiding a deeper truth about a relationship." |  |
