The Astronomer, an Aesop’s Fable

Part of our regular series celebrating The International Year of Astronomy.

An astronomer used to walk out every night to gaze upon the stars. It happened one night that, with his whole thoughts rapt up in the skies, he fell into a well. One who heard his cries ran up to him and said, “While you are trying to pry into the mysteries of heaven, you overlook the common objects under your feet.”

We should never look so high as to miss seeing the things that are around us.

Wait, you are saying, didn’t America just get rid of a president who had this attitude, that learning is bad? At first glance, this story may seem to be the opposite of our intentions, but it could merely be a springboard for larger ideas. Or the narrator, feeling smug, could just be insulting the clumsiness of the title character, taking him down a peg. I did wonder, if the well is built like all those illustrations with a waist high wall, tiny roof & a bucket on a pulley, how a grown man could trip into one. Obviously, wells were built differently in Aesop’s time.
And why is the guy walking around his backyard while looking upwards, anyways? It seems an odd concept, because today, even an amateur astronomer would be standing still, looking through a telescope. Back then, no telescopes, not even a pretend one made from a cardboard paper towel roll. So one must admire his perseverance, if not his gracefulness.
What the narrator overlooks is that focusing on the small things can make life humdrum. Looking at the big picture can be not only refreshing, but puts things into perspective. Besides, space isn’t just space; it’s hope, dreams and possibilities. There’s a reason for the sayings “reach for the stars” or “shoot the moon”.
Space represents, as the original Star Trek told us, “the final frontier”. Astronauts are like those famed global explorers, only on a vaster scale. Had those early galleons kept going, eventually they’d have gotten back to where they began. Even aquatic explorers such as Jacques Cousteau would reach the bottom of the ocean at some point, but space seems infinite. The concept is almost too big to grasp.
Space can also be a metaphor for loneliness and being lost, or literally being cut off, as in David Bowie’s classic song “Space Oddity”. But the dark mystery can also be alluring, with the possibility of new planets or stars, or even new life forms. I hate when I read letters to the editors saying that a country’s space program is a waste of money, and our narrator would’ve been jotting with them, but that’s terribly small minded. Not only has space travel led to medical, geographical & other technological advances, but it’s also been used as a diplomatic tool, bridging countries in ways that doesn’t involve guns. I’d rather funds be spent on rocket ships than bombs. Besides, with space stations and the search for other hospitable planets, it gives us an option if something goes terribly wrong on this one. It would be the ultimate “alternative lifestyle”.
So, while the moral of the story has merit, in that you shouldn’t overlook your everyday responsibilities, to ignore one’s own curiosity and dreams is to live a less rich life.

There are many collections of Aesop‘s Fables in print and online, this cover was found at the Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library

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