Stargazing: Looking Up
Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Stephen Hawking
Astrophysicist and cultural icon Stephen Hawking shared this recommendation in a 2010 interview with ABC News’ Diane Sawyer as the first of the “most important pieces of advice” he had passed on to his three children. In a subsequent speech, Prof. Hawking repeated and elaborated on this sentiment:
Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. And however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. It matters that you don’t just give up. While there’s life, there is hope.Stephen Hawking
While most of us will never confront the level of adversity that Professor Hawking had to deal with throughout much of his remarkable life, all of us, our communities and the world over are confronted with real and present threats to our own health and increasing limits on our movement.
If we take Hawking’s strikingly spiritual and optimistic advice to heart in our current situation, we will find that looking up at the stars is something we can still do without seeking anyone’s permission or running any unnecessary risk. It is something that we too can recommend for the children in our lives as a way to inspire them with wonder at what makes the universe exist.
The following is a selection of e-books available from the library, accessible from anywhere with your library card, on how to stargaze, either with binoculars or with the naked eye.
