Author Information
Holy Week, 2025, Monday: Lunchtime Conversation With One Of The Starwatchers
Among us Starwatchers, and even
among the inimitable Livers who are
sworn to ensure our safety and
guard the sites of our sometimes
complex observations: the accounts---
when separated from tavern chatter and
dockside embellishment after a good
swig---are difficult to explain or
interpret. Was the slowly spreading
darkness caused by a predictable but
unavoidable storm? But why did the
seas remain calm, navigable?, and---as
far as we can tell---no incidents of
any kind of endangerment to persons or
cargos. Some locals believe an
eclipse caused the darkness, but we,
here, would have been able predict that.
Some of the ignorant are convinced that
cosmic events are random: our own
calculations and nightly observances
disprove that. Accurate prediction is
one of our customary tasks; subsequent
confirmation is a customary satisfaction.
That particular region of the Romans'
empire is not without historical interest.
During the previous generation, three of
our colleagues---all refugees from the
wrath of Octavian, the so-called Augustus---
traveled there after observing a certain
star at its heliacal rising; the star, one
might say, of our small college's entire
purpose for existing, the star our founder,
Balaam the Moabite predicted, and for which
he fled the rage of Balak and settled here
(his tomb is just over there) to await the
fulfillment of his supreme expectation.
Starwardist
