Stars
Stars once inspired me in their cool distance and fixed gaze, especially the North Star. The pale point never moves. The heavens revolve and shift with their seasonal regularity, tugging their mythological images across the vast gulf.
The North Star mans its post and gazes without comment as our small, chaotic world unfolds. Time leaves no chips or scares against its surface. As Javert comments from Les Miserables, “Each in your season returns and returns and is always the same.”
Now I get the same inspiration from our broken responses to this brittle world. I see the pains of love and joy we suffer, and how many struggle to do what they think is just despite the hardships that brings. I see humans fighting to forgive, fighting to love, fighting to smile.
So many stumble. So many call out for need. So many internalize and work on late into the night, fighting to live even as they stare at the ceiling each morning and ask, “Why am I still here? Why haven’t I put a bullet through my head or shoved a dozen pills down my throat?”
Our broken-hearted world lacks the stoical strength of the North Star. No one can stand on point forever. More and more, I don’t care about that. When I see what people do despite the pain in their lives, I have a hell of a lot more respect.
The North Star mans its post and gazes without comment as our small, chaotic world unfolds. Time leaves no chips or scares against its surface. As Javert comments from Les Miserables, “Each in your season returns and returns and is always the same.”
Now I get the same inspiration from our broken responses to this brittle world. I see the pains of love and joy we suffer, and how many struggle to do what they think is just despite the hardships that brings. I see humans fighting to forgive, fighting to love, fighting to smile.
So many stumble. So many call out for need. So many internalize and work on late into the night, fighting to live even as they stare at the ceiling each morning and ask, “Why am I still here? Why haven’t I put a bullet through my head or shoved a dozen pills down my throat?”
Our broken-hearted world lacks the stoical strength of the North Star. No one can stand on point forever. More and more, I don’t care about that. When I see what people do despite the pain in their lives, I have a hell of a lot more respect.