This might surprise you, but I know the Hubble Telescope is having its twenty-fifth anniversary this year. I am not a closet astronomy nerd, but I lived in The Bahamas where there is no light pollution, and like home inspectors and police detectives I tended to look up.
I was thinking about the difference in the way I see things now that I am sober. Most of my Bahamian star-gazing took place on the tiki hut while drunk (is it wrong that I just got a sort of kick-in-the-pants nostalgia for stumbling, barefoot onto the deck?).
I do have a strong recollection of nighttime sky-watching in The Bahamas. I remember the stars being so plentiful and clear they touched. The sky was silver, with a metallic light shining on the Exuma Sound like a spectral roadway to the horizon…
Luckily I never tried to walk on it… I did have a pilot friend try to drive a golf cart on water once, but that’s another story…
Star-gazing is one of those things that doesn’t seem to be impacted greatly by drinking or not drinking. It is not like sitting in the middle seats at a dull play, or hiking near a cliff, or having a political debate or setting up fireworks. It doesn’t require patience or balance or conversational skills or the agility to light matches… And most of the time star gazing is done in a prone position.
But I must admit I do not look at the stars as much as I did in my Bahamian drinking days. I wonder why. Maybe it’s because I do not find myself in open topped golf carts after last-call anymore. Or flat on my back outside. Or maybe it is because I am so bloody, busy studying my inner workings down here, I am forgetting about what’s up there.
I need to remember to look up more often…
Because there is nothing new under the sun (or stars in this case) I actually found a blog that charted the reactions by a sober, drunk and a high person to Brown University’s Ladd Observatory Telescope. It’s pretty funny…