Reaching for the stars

When we look up at the stars in the sky (which presents no problem for us at all, it’s like watching the cat sitting on the mat - it’s there, it’s alright) and we feel a yearning, part of that is a frustration of seeing something we can’t reach. We may gaze at stars but we always have to return to the here and now, to appreciate what we have at home. We have our own star, the sun, we have our own planet and our own companions. We are very lucky. We look up at the stars. They shine down on us just as they shine on their own orbiting planets, and that reminds us of our future, which we cannot possibly see because it hasn’t happened yet. But we can project probabilities by referring to the past, by listening to the stories which have made us what we are and moulded our social attitudes. This is where we find out what has happened and perhaps learn things about human history that we’d rather not know about. Like the many humans who have been exploited and the many lives wasted. The age of the machines has arrived and machine minds are responsible for a lot of damage. We’ve even turned animals into machines and we have them producing goods for us from the confines of cages and concrete pens. Things couldn’t be worse, and yet repairs can be made.