From time to time stars align in the truest sense and this happens to be one such time. Jupiter and Saturn, technically planets if you insist, will conjoin in the eastern evening sky this month, reaching their closest on December 21. This degree of connection has not been seen since the Dark Ages’ year of 1226.
A similar conjunction occurred in 7 B.C.E., and has been thought by some to be the Biblical star in the east referenced in Matthew. It’s timing, though, doesn’t quite align with the best dating for the birth of Jesus. Still, the timing of this celestial event so near to our Christmas strikes the imagination with wonder and hope, particularly in a year as fraught with plague and loss as this one.
While pondering these thoughts, a little poem came to me that I’d like to share with anyone who stumbles along here.
Of Planets and Promise
December seems deeper and darker
in this season of masked isolation
than the eternity of icy anticipation
children have endured for eons
in waiting for stockings stuffed
with sugarplums – seriously
whose idea was that anyway?
In the counting of our blessings
we have the blessed good fortune
to include a fellow named Fauci
to serve as an Elf on our Shelf
with the promise of pin pricks
to free us to return to things
we never dreamed we’d miss
But for now in our long winter’s
dark night of loneliness and loss
something or One we owe thanks
has sent a star or two in the east
to wed as one in the sky while we
cannot here – a promise perhaps
for the patient of better days to come
