I’ve been thinking about swan songs and signals. This led me to information about the constellation Cygnus. I thought about the letters ‘cy’, and I was reminded of the word cyborg, and strangely the thought of high fives came into my mind.
It can be quite strange when you follow the random and yet connected paths our minds can take.
As I focused my research on the constellation Cygnus, I learned about the Summer Triangle in the sky. This is called an ‘asterism’ and it is made up of three of the brightest stars from three different constellations.
These three stars are named Vega, Deneb, and Altair. Vega is the brightest star in the constellation named Lyra the Harp. Deneb is the brightest star in the constellation named Cygnus (which is Latin for swan). Altair (which is Arabic) is the brightest star in the constellation Aquila the Eagle. These three stars form an asterism called the Summer Triangle.
Constellations were named in ancient times when the night sky served as a movie theater screen, and ancient storytellers would weave a story in order to remember the pattern and placement of these stars. These constellations helped farmers to mark the seasons for planting and harvesting, and they helped sailors navigate the seas.
These stories fed our human imagination, and as the stories grew so did our imaginations. Today we feed our imaginations at indoor movie screens with fantastical stories of space travel and comic heroes.
Down on earth this summer I hope to spend more time outside studying our ancient movie screen. Perhaps I can weave my own stories about our earthly practices that can feed our realistic lives. I am human so I can hope.
movingforwardslowly 