Notes from Mexico: VII

Constellations

To my right, I see the table, still laid with a white tablecloth, where we ate supper right outside our room, in full view of the setting sun. Now, the sun has long since disappeared, and looking up at the skies, I see a thousand other suns shining down. I can make out some constellations – the few that I know. Orion, the dippers, and the one which was always my favourite as a child – the seven sisters. I think I liked it because I didn’t have to draw any lines in my mind’s eye; the picture was just there – seven pinpoints of light, seven beautiful women. Even at that age, I could take in the world as symbols. I could see how a person could be reduced to a pinpoint of light, or, how a pinpoint of light could be reduced to a person. I felt like that sometimes, still feel like that sometimes – like I am some abstraction of an existence. So I liked knowing that there were seven others up there, seven others who didn’t need to be drawn together to be understood, who didn’t need to outline a bear, or a hunter, or a piece of cutlery, but who could exist simply as the light that they were, and be seen that way as well.

-muse