The Stargazers

A parable

Photo by Casey Horner on Unsplash

The star-touched village of Renghat rested so high in the Himalayas that even the strongest of climbers would see four winters before laying eyes upon the village gates. Given Renghat’s proximity to the heavens, its villagers claimed that their ancestors had descended from the stars long ago.

It was because of this claim that the fierce bearded warriors from the Gobi, the long-haired seafarers from the Great Bay, and the multitude of peoples in between would travel to the peaks of the Himalayas to seek counsel in Renghat, the village tethered both to the Earth and the stars.

You see, the villagers of Renghat - who did not number more than three hundred - could commune with the stars on a cloudless night sky. When the villagers danced in praise to the gods, the stars twinkled along. When the villagers mourned a death, the stars would dim their fires. Most importantly, when the villagers asked questions, the stars blinked back with answers - that is, until the day the pale man arrived. While visitors to Renghat often sought dominion over their enemies or knowledge of catastrophes to come, the pale man sought something less tangible.

After being led to the village elders, the pale man introduced himself. “I am the lord of a peaceful land far west of the Levant where harvests are bountiful in the summertime and where the snow gently falls on our sturdy roofs in the winter. My lands have prospered under my steady hand.”

The pale man paused, scratching his beard. “Yet, despite all this, a strange void has opened in my soul. I live, but without joy. I sleep, but without dreams. Tell me, wise pagans of Renghat, what is my purpose? The answer to this question, I believe, is the only cure to this malady that has afflicted me.”

The village elders nodded their heads. While this was an unfamiliar line of questioning, the stars had never failed to provide answers. So it was much to the elders’ surprise that the stars responded to the pale man’s question by repeating the question back to the elders.

For many nights, the elders rephrased the pale man’s question in an attempt to coax an answer from above. Yet, again and again, the stars would respond back with the rephrased question. Then, on the seventh night, the pale man himself made a passionate plea to the stars, “Oh bright beings from above, tell me the meaning of my existence!”

Again, the stars blinked back, and again, the elders - with heads cast down - informed the pale man that his question had been repeated back to him. Dejected, the pale man felt a growing sense of dread as he began to think of the long and treacherous journey back home. But suddenly, clarity hit the pale man like a lightning bolt, and tears began to stream down his face.

The stars were not merely repeating back the pale man’s questions, but providing the answer.

The point of his life, the pale man realized, was for him to answer the question he posed to the stars. It seemed then to the pale man that the priests in his homeland were right - humans truly were made in the image of God. In the same way that God created existence out of nothingness, humans were tasked with creating their own purpose in life.

The pale man, feeling his heart radiating with joy, began running to the highest point in Renghat so he could pay homage to the stars. Upon reaching the hilltop, the pale man closed his eyes and reached his fingertips to the heavens, relishing in the freedom and responsibility - all other living creatures had neither - to create meaning in the great void.