The Starman

The Starman

Have you heard that one about the Starman? He was an explorer and a wanderer. His last voyage was one that took him beyond the sphere of the moon and into the deep infinite recesses of the universe. Aristotle believed, for mystical reasons, that the earth was the centre of the universe. The Starman believed that the centre was not observable to mankind.

The Starman dampened his fears and roused his passion with self-made promises of the glorious destiny that lay in store for him. Quae verteret was the only real object of his mission. Boundaries were there to be overthrown.

On the first day of his voyage, he towered threateningly to the sky. His only fight was against the gravity that caused objects like him to fall to the ground.

On the second day of his voyage, he drifted and drifted further beyond the realm of our planet and saw its surface as a two-dimensional curved space. He asked himself whether the universe had a beginning in time.

On the third day of his voyage, he asked himself what God did before he created the universe. He reminded himself that he was a man and not a god.

On the fourth day of his voyage, he saw the sun as just an ordinary, averaged-sized yellow star amongst countless others. He baulked at the scale of the mission facing him and realised that his battle was one that must be won inside his mind.

On the fifth day of his voyage, he gazed into oblivion, at things his eyes could not discern. When he attempted to go beyond the limits of what was sayable, he spoke nonsense. And so he thought it better to close his eyes and his mind.

And on the final day of his voyage, he realised that he wasn’t actually Starman at all. He was a just a man staring up at the sun who had been blinded by the light.