Modernity’s ‘Starry Night’
“Looking closely, I realized that the bright stars I admired were not stars at all.”
I saw Van Gogh’s Starry Night tonight.
Not the painting, nor the sky as he saw it, of course. But I sat for hours under rolling clouds mimicking the hills, having visions of bigger-than-life stars, moving focal points in a swirling mass of blue and gray.
I was moved too, but into stillness.
How many people have not looked at the stars as I am doing now, and marvelled at them? I thought. Constellations change, still the view of the night-sky is ageless.
But, looking closely, I realized that the bright stars I admired were not stars at all.
They were the lights of airplanes — dozens of them — slowly criss-crossing the skies between Barcelona and Valencia.
That night was October 25, 2020. I was (and still am) working as an English Language Assistant in Catalonia (part-time) and thinking about what direction to take in life (also part-time).
Earlier that day I had watched a lecture by Jennifer Robert, an Art Historian at Harvard University, in which she talked about a project she sets for her students: slow looking at a painting of a boy and a squirrel for three hours.
Although that is a daunting length of time to look at one artwork, I felt inspired.
I would not have realized that the bright stars were airplanes unless I had really looked. The number of them still amaze me and made me realize the extent to which modernity has taken over.
Modernity’s speed and reach can now outshine (or, perhaps, overshadow) even our most romanticized scenery.
The pace of modern life scares me:
the corporate productivity goals, which mean that we think twice about taking time off work;
the speed at which I can be on the other side of the world if I hop on a flight;
the bare minutes it takes for me to order a meal at my local McDonald’s and have it in front of me.
The snap-snap pace is the same in cultural institutions.
For example, did you know that the average person only spends eight seconds looking at a work of art in an art gallery?
If we pause and count them, eight seconds seem like a long time.
But if we try to memorize the facial characteristics of a new acquaintance or look into the face of a person we love, eight seconds are not very long at all.
I can still look at the sky at night and believe that the lights I see are stars. But maybe it’s worth taking some time to consider whether or not we are missing something;
to pause and question, what we are really seeing.
PS. If, like me, you want to learn more about slow living, here are some places to start:
- Information about everything from Slow Travel to Slow Money.
- Kyle Kowalski’s guide to Slow Living.
- A global art movement which spreads awareness for mindful engagement with art.
