Southworld (Part 4 of 7)

Sitting down on the grass, Richard took a deep breath and for a moment closed his eyes.  The sky had just started to become dark, but no stars had begun to show.  It was just Richard and the moon.

His job in the astrophysics department at CalCor had proven to be both financially and academically beneficial.  His seemingly unlimited budget and the opportunity to write peer review papers in the top journals had given Richard a depth of knowledge and a respect in the academic community surpassed by few.

Richard put all of his thoughts and concerns on hold and centered himself, finding his ground.  He felt himself slow down and his breathing deepen, relaxing his entire frame.  Starting up at the moon and the now just appearing stars, Richard thought back over the past few years.
In a strictly temporal sense, the years had been good to Richard.  He was financially secure, his health couldn't be better and his wife and kids loved him. But Richard felt empty.  The years also brought a lot of questions.  Western Christianity had been tested and found seriously wanting.  He had so been focused on his work in astronomy that he had failed to give any attention to the spiritual side.  After the debacle with the Baptists, organized religion had lost its appeal.

Looking up at the now clearly visible stars, Richard's thoughts retreated back to his comparative religion class in college.  One thing that occurred to him was one seeming connection, one common thread amongst so many ancient cultures, that of the stars.  Maybe that was what ultimately drew Richard to astronomy.  So many cultures over so many centuries and even millennia looked to the stars for guidance and wisdom.  Richard had the slightest feeling of connection deep in his mind.  He knew the stars. He knew everything about them, but maybe he was approaching them wrong all this time.

Richard stood up and brushed off his slacks, even though he knew full well that they weren't dirty.  One more glance up at the stars and the now visible shooting star confirmed it for him.  Ten millennia and scores of cultures couldn't be wrong.  The stars held the answers.  Richard simply needed to find the right questions to ask and whom to ask them.