Cosmos

The Cosmos, that great order that represents reality which we also refer to mostly equivalently as the Universe, is a tough thing to look at. It's also beautiful with a hard grace. If it were still dark enough we could look out the window now and see the stars in the sky, gleaming with that light from the distant past. People used to look up at the cosmos, at the skies, and wonder what could happen out there. Now it's only possible far from the things of Man.

There's too much illumination to see the stars clearly at night now, and the universe is seen as a much harder place. It is not really, but life has turned into something far more pressured. We've made a trade-off, swapping disease and hardship for comfort and pressure, and as a result we have lost the sky. In losing the sky we have also lost our link to the world, even though it sits beneath our feet as it ever has. Or perhaps I'm talking total pretentious nonsense.

Let's pause to regroup.

As technology has progressed and we have multiplied uncontrollably on this precious world, the sheer number of people has made life more stressful. I hold that to be an indisputable fact. As we grow in numbers and multiply the stresses out of hand, there is a growing demand for entertainment and diversion. In a sense that is entirely understandable, as we need more assistance in relaxing; Not everyone is as easily relaxed as me, when I remember I need to be. But is there something else at play here?

As an example, I watch lots of television DVDs and read lots of novels. I also read Mathematics and languages, but that's another topic entirely. Could it be that these fragments of entertainment, these fictional realities are what are binding us to the Earth now, to our world and the wider cosmos? We certainly don't see much of the world anymore, unless we're lucky enough to travel widely, and even then we connect more to the people than the planet and for only a few instants in our lives. The more aware people go to a stream or the sea and soak in the world and reconnect in a myriad of other ways, but it's not a common thing at all.

If what we're looking for is connection to the world and to a certain constant of domesticity, it seems we look to fiction for a stable and constant reflection of that universe at large, for the inspirations and patterns that don't really get passed on any more, and the cautionary tales that get lost in the cracks. And then we learn everything ourselves anyway by trial and error, as that is how it has always been.

Does that mean that my DVD diet of 'The Mentalist', 'Community', 'Star Trek' and 'Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea' is teaching me how to be a wonderful human? Or the wonderful novels of David Eddings, Terry Pratchett, and the wonderful expanded universes of Star Trek and Doctor Who? Maybe they are, and maybe they aren't, but when the stars are hidden from view you seek them out in worlds where they are still clear to see.

O.