NEBULA
VOLUME 44 I ssue 2
PAGE 3
PRESIDENT'S PIECE
by David Leyshon
On my study wall is an old Jewish
saying: ‘We don't see things as they
are; we see them as We are’. What
does that mean? Does it refer to our
emotions? Our intellect? Our mental
state? Or what?
Whatever it means, we don’t just
see things - we interpret them. Ho w
does this relate to astronomy? Well,
tonight I watched the Last Night of the
Proms but, before the concert started,
I went outside to show my third
grandchild the moon and the summer
triangle. It was a b it chilly - dare I use
that word yet? - so we hastily ret reated
indoors.
Of course it’s September, the month
of transitions, of beginnings and end-
ings. The end of summer—one author
describes it thus: ‘... September deliv-
ers the last day of summer’. Time to
go back to work (in earnest); the start
of school and college terms; a hint of
coldness in the air, that dreaded time
when Christ mas cards appear in the
shops....
It’s also the month of the Autumnal
Equino x, dark nights, the approach of
winter. There’s a mood of foreboding
mingled with anticipation.
Back to astronomy. I’ve mentioned
in previous pieces the different ways
people ‘do’ astronomy, as well as the
reasons that motivate them. For some
people, astronomy is a lifelong pas-
sion—for others it’s a sudden awaken-
ing, and for some an awareness of
mous people who have greatly ad-
mired the Meditations. Okay, don't
ask me whether Clinton always lived
by those maxims. AND please don't
ask what Donald Trump’s favourite
book is. I refuse to be drawn on that
one!
what’s ‘up’ there only occurs when
they are doing something else. Work-
ing nights for examp le—perhaps just
walking home after a n ight in the pub.
I’ve been reading the Meditations of
Marcus Aurelius. In case you’re
wondering who he was, he was a Ro-
man empero r who ru led fro m A D 161
to 180. He featured in the film Gladi-
ator, played by the late Richard Har-
ris. Marcus Aurelius believed that the
office of emperor obliged him to be
moral in private life and to be diligent
in his public duties, not to use being
emperor to indulge himself or harm
others, as some other emperors like
Nero did. Whilst campaigning against
German ic tribes, Marcus kept a diary,
containing philosophical musings —it
was something to do at night, espe-
cially as he sounds a bit of a loner.
These became the famous Medita-
tions.
Bill Clinton is one of the many fa-
Anyway, one night in Germany—
maybe it was this time of year and
chilly—Marcus Aurelius wrote these
words: ‘The Pythagoreans [an ancient
school of philosophy founded by Py-
thagoras] tell us to look at the stars at
daybreak. To remind ourselves how
they complete the tasks assigned
them—always the same tasks, the
same way. And their order, purity,
nakedness. Stars wear no conceal-
ment.’
Okay, these words don’t sound too
scientific. Do the stars have ‘tasks’ to
complete? And perhaps his thoughts
on astronomy were second-hand, alt-
hough he must have gone outside at
some time to actually look at the
heavens. But does it really matter?
The stars—he believed—give us les-
sons on how to live our lives. We
might say that his deeply-held convic-
tions led him to think of them in that
way.
And should that surprise us? As
humans, we do more than just look at
things. We study them, investigate
them, analyse them, even derive les-
sons for life fro m them.
And so those wise words I began
with apply to astronomy par excel-
lence: ‘We don't see things as they
are; we see them as WE are ’.
Something to reflect upon, as you
stand outside in the cold winter
months contemplating the heavens.
Happy contemplating!
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