Musings on a Star
Immortal it hangs in the night sky.
There it is. That certain star. It has been there since I became aware of it so many years ago. Just a little above the horizon in the western sky.
I was young. In the early years as I was just beginning to see my life outside my family and my home town. I spent many nights sitting in the great weeping willow in our back yard staring at it. I was either pining over a new girlfriend or dreaming about a life of adventure and foreign lands.
It was a time before the washing out of the night sky by encroaching civilization. The Milky Way was still a glittering haze of stars spread across the darkness above. But more intense than that was my star, distinct from all the others.
One day my dreams of adventure began to come true and I found myself leaving my small town and visiting those foreign lands. The first I visited was on the other side of the world. It was the complete antitheses of my roots. Perpetually hot, sticky, smelly and backwards.
But overhead the same night sky as at home, except for the occasional bomber sneaking in over the border. And as always, that same twinkling star in the low western sky.
Through tears and smiles, alone or with others, in comfort and sometimes in pain an anchor.
And so it went over the years. Different countries, different cultures, different experiences, but still my familiar star. Always taking me back to the comfort and warm memories of a distant but familiar time and place.
It’s been sixty odd years now and I’m walking my dogs on a warm night back in the same home town I left years ago. But now the sky is a dark veil absent of stars, overridden by the lights of ever growing cities and towns. As my dogs take the time to decide on just the right spot to deposit their offering I look to the west and there it is. It still twinkles red and blue and green overcoming the artificial light surrounding me.
What is my affinity with this star? Is it even a star? It may be a planet such as Mars or Venus. Or perhaps it is my ancient home calling me back. Is that a thought too far off to consider?
It doesn’t matter. It has always been and it will always be. Immortal it hangs in the night sky. Perhaps, someday, even as I.
