Stargazing Guy

– Vincent Van Gogh (30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890)

One of the greatest artists of all times. Painter of The Starry Night (amongst many others) and tormented and tortured soul.

Credit: https://depositphotos.com/49703113/stock-photo-starry-night-sky.html

His letters give a deep insight into his nature, his thoughts and his dreams.

This quote is taken from a letter van Gogh wrote to his brother, Theo, in 1888. A bit of context from the original letter follows:

“Is the whole of life visible to us, or do we in fact know only the one hemisphere before we die? For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream, in the same simple way as I dream about the black dots representing towns and villages on a map. Why, I ask myself, should the shining dots in the sky be any less accessible to us than the black dots on the map of France? If we take the train to get to Tarascon or Rouen, then we take death to go to a star. What is certainly true in this reasoning is that while we are alive we cannot go to a star, any more than, once dead, we could catch a train. It seems possible to me that cholera, gravel, phthisis, and cancer could be the means of celestial transportation, just as steam-boats, omnibuses, and railways serve that function on earth. To die peacefully of old age would be to go there on foot.”

Full text can be found at http://www.vangoghletters.org/

Thinking of the stars in the sky as a map of towns and cities on the surface of the Earth is an analogy used by many stargazers to learn the position of stars and the patterns they make. There will be more about this in the next week quote, from Sir John Herschel.

PS: I love coffee. BuyMeACoffee, leave a message with a date and time and we can share it, remotely, at the same time, and think about the Cosmos.

In the meantime, take care of yourself and if you can, someone else, too, because as Adam Smith said, “we naturally desire not only to be loved but to be lovely”.

Credit for opening image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Van_Gogh_-_Starry_Night_2.jpg