Reclining on our camp chairs, looking for meteors in the jet December sky, we considered who might be twinkling up there, because in some cultures people believe that when a person dies they ascend to the heavens and become a star. When you look up and find that bright point, you are reuniting with your loved one. It's a comforting thought and one we cannot affirm or deny because we are still alive.
But what if it's true, we wondered? What if when you die you become a star? Will you be aware of it, will you be able to communicate with other stars? Are star clusters the equivalent of cities or neighbourhoods where everyone more or less knows one other. Hey, it's been so long! Is it always this hot? Because we must remember that stars are essentially burning out fireballs. The light we think we see from stars may be the echoes of light, strange though it is to use a word generally associated with sound to describe something visual, strange as in synesthetic. Everything is so vast, so inconceivably far away that it might as well be eternity, heaven. It is common to glance up when we think of the direction a departed one has taken
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