Saw Orion tonight for the first time this season.
Hey, Old Man, it’s been a while.
He and I used to walk the night fields north of campus and we’d talk about life. I’d unload all my concerns and toss them to the sky, and he’d do cartwheels over my head as my feet crunched the frosty grass below.
Every reunion stops me in my tracks and fills me with awe. He’s a majestic old friend. It’s too bad we don’t talk more. But I have to go back to my dark sky home town to see him.
And if my thoughts on moving to the Northwest were to become manifest, I’m afraid I’d see him even less, since he’s purely a southern constellation that only comes out in winter.
But that’s an apt allegory for how little I’d see the rest of my friends should I move, isn’t it? Should I chase the sun? Or should I wait for stars?