The Comet

“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

I am by no means an astronomer. Looking into the vastness of space I am overwhelmed. More is going on out there than I can fathom. The word was that a comet was to visit the western sky. “You can see it with the naked eye.” The chorus sings.

Look closely and you see one of the stars has a tail. Lemmon Comet? Maybe.

Oh, Horatio, kindred spirit. The older I get the more these words ring true. I give the knowledge of life a stab. Each day I get older I realize how little I know and how few years I have left to remedy that problem.

And, it is a problem. My ignorance lets me down daily. I misidentify species constantly, misquote the masters, attribute erroneous names and dates to historic events, and the spellings, Oh My God, the spellings.

But, I try. At least I know and admit the depths of my illiteracy. There’s more to know about the things which interest me than I’ll ever know. Like looking at the stars. The ones we see are just the beginning. Beyond those the dots of light are infinite. Endless.

Unfortunately, now-and-again I dip my toe into the discussions of the day and am quickly reminded how little I know. I also realize how little anyone knows about anything. I have found a few brave souls who report daily on the goings on of the world. Knowing myself and how quickly I spew hearsay and opinions mistaken for facts, I only read folks who are known for thorough research. I also want to see their primary source documents so I may read them myself.

I doubt I’ll ever know much about outer space. Have limited understanding of anything going on beyond my daily reality. But I am open to learning. My hope is that I’ll learn until the day I die.