Ascended to the stars

The ancients believed, and it helps me sometimes to think that they knew, the best parts of people ascend to the stars. And when stars collide, as stars in their courses will do, they rain down gold. Some few precious people can somehow hold this stardust in their hearts.

My friend Rita had been living on what could reasonably be called borrowed time. The memorial service was on what would have been her birthday. While the medical complications that took her came out of the blue, in fact she had lived something like twice as long as had been expected in her youth. Her diminutive stature and petite build belied her inner strength and determination. Her life was not the stuff of splashy obituaries, but she was an inspiration to me.

Rita found the study of astrology helpful in her efforts at self-development. She was born under the sign of the scorpion and strove to nurture the eagle that some astrologers say is the more spiritual side of the sign. You needn’t be a devotee to see the beauty of the night sky. The scorpion is a lovely curl of stars with a fiery red heart, Antares. In the sky directly above Scorpio stands the Serpent Handler. The Serpent Handler used to be considered a distinct asterism, though the stars delineating serpent and handler are rather woven together. Aquila, the eagle, rises with the stars that form the sting of the scorpion.

A nearly universal story is told of how all the birds of the air congregated in an heroic assault against Sky to bring down fire to the peoples of earth. The eagle soared highest but was still coming up short. Just as he flagged and failed, out from between his shoulders flew the tiny wren, who easily made the final distance and won the day.

Rita was that delicate wren with a heart of fire, as everyone who knew her knows. Paraphrasing an old epitaph, “If love could have saved her, she would not have died.”

STANLEY G. JOHNSON

Little Rock