Finding the Meaning of Life While Looking Up at the Stars

I can’t say that I know anything about astronomy. Historically, famous astronomers and their contributions have paved the way for new theories. For over 10,000 years, astronomical writings, philosophies, beliefs and theories have been found in every corner of the world. It is amazing how certain beliefs began in one area of the world, only to be proven (or disproved) many years (sometimes over 1,000 years) later.

Looking at the stars to me helps us to keep perspective that whatever we think is so important and overwhelming and difficult in life right now is actually very insignificant. We’re all just little stardust in the wind. Maybe that’s why it feels so good to look up at the stars. Every atom in your body is begging to go home.

All I know for a fact is that me and my 9 children by 5 different women have learned a lot about the meaning of life just by taking the time to look up at the stars in good and bad times.

I even showed them that you can even see stars in the daylight. I shared with all my children that throughout history, luminaries ranging from Aristotle to Sir John Herschel have reported that stars are visible during the day from the bottoms of mine shafts, tall chimneys, coal pits or cisterns. Folk tales have also told of people spying celestial pinpricks of light reflected in the bottoms of dark lakes or wells. Presumably, the ability to see stars under such conditions was thanks to a mineshaft’s smaller visual angle or to the greater contrast provided by dark surroundings. Unfortunately for well-wishers, most of these illustrious figures relied on second-hand accounts and never tried the experiments themselves. Had they done so, they might have found what German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt and his students did when they tested the idea on a 230-foot chimney with a 16-foot opening. To improve their chances of success, they searched for a specific celestial object Vega, the fifth brightest star in the night sky that was scheduled to pass almost directly overhead. They failed to see anything, even with binoculars.

 However, it is possible to see stars during the day. First, there’s the sun, our nearest star, but observing it directly is dangerous without using the proper shields and equipment. Other individual, bright stars can be seen during daylight hours through a telescope or a really powerful pair of binoculars.

It was knowing information like that, that brought me close to all of my children.

One night while my oldest child and I were laying in my backyard gazing at the stars. She asked me why do I have so many children with so many different baby mamas.

I pondered over her question before I responded. Knowing her question required some serious thought.  

I whispered as if I were speaking with the stars that in the first chapter of Genesis, God tells Adam and Eve to “be fruitful and increase in number” (Genesis 1:28). This is the first command God gives to people, a command to have children, to procreate. Procreation is important spiritually, too. The spiritual goal of having children is to create disciples of Jesus. Raising children to love God and love their neighbors is the most natural way to follow the Great Commission: Then Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matthew 28:18-20). Teaching one’s own children the commandments of Christ is a privilege and a joy.

She seemed satisfied with that vindication and suddenly pointed up at the Big Dipper. Upon her graduating from high school she took up Ministry.

I built a huge tent in my backyard so that me and my five sons could go camping when I had visitation rights. Two of their mothers had remarried and I was determined to remain in their lives. We talked a lot about life back in them days while gazing up at the many stars.

My youngest son liked to talk about the Milky Way and kept us up all night with many facts like did we know the Milky Way began as a series of dense regions in the early universe not long after the Big Bang. The Milky Way has grown by merging with other galaxies through time. The Milky Way moves through space at a velocity of about 552 kilometers per second (343 miles per second) with respect to the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation. The Milky Way’s central core contains a supermassive black hole. It is commonly referred to as Sagittarius A*. It contains the mass of about 4.3 million Suns. The stars, gas and dust of the Milky Way all orbit the center at a rate of about 220 kilometers per second. This constant rate for all stars at different distances from the core implies the existence of a shell of dark matter surrounding our galaxy. Our galaxy will collide with Andromeda Galaxy in about 5 billion years. Some astronomers refer to our two galaxy as a binary system of giant spirals.

My other 4 sons pleaded with me on numerous occasion never to invite him to camping night.

 One of my son even suggested that he wouldn’t be upset if I took him to and observatory.

My children were growing up right beneath the stars. Little Milky Way boy was an only child.

The three triplet daughters of mine where not into looking at stars at all, until I had them lay in that back yard and asked them what did their future look like.

One said I’m seeing me as a fashion designer, the other stated she saw herself being a doctor and the third twin said daddy I see myself as a stripper. We all laughed because we all knew she would one day be a find comedienne.  

On my 60^th birthday all my children and 22 grandchildren couldn’t wait until the sun went down so that we all could lay out in my backyard and look up at the stars.