Permit me to invite you up into an observatory I found. The seats have not been installed so we will have to lean back against a catwalk railing as we look up into the sprawling window. Now, because our cosmological understanding has been mostly shaped by our experience of the night sky, we could be forgiven for thinking this is that same view. While understandable, that is a mistaken assumption. This observatory, like the night sky, is a window into the cosmos, and not the actual cosmos itself.
Let us look up together. This window allows us to not only see, but to watch the stars all arrayed in their heavenly order (something earthen telescopes can not do). What would be a twinkling pinprick in the sky, we see now to be a column of solar systems burning in unison as they march across space. These detachments are gathered into the galaxies of the starry host that maneuver and advance more magnificently than any human army.
We often forget that our own sun has remained at his post with a vigilance unmatched within terrestrial time. From this special observatory, we are reminded of his duty unique out of the whole of heaven. You and I get to momentarily take his view of a precious world, the garden globe he is tasked to protect.
Einstein must have sat in an observatory much like this one in order to write, “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.” He was absolutely right in his conclusion that “It is the source of all true art and science.” As he goes on to explain, why else does man continue to look up to the sky except that he expects to see something. Though the mystery continues to puzzle me. Why are the stars so beautiful? To whom is the beauty meant to display?
The window closes and I thank you for joining me. As you go, I ask that you continue to gaze at the mysterious, you might see something beautiful.
The quote that inspired this piece comes from the 1931 work Living Philosophies. A collection of writings from 22 writers, scientists, and philosophers. I highly suggest reading Einstein’s quote in it’s full context here.