“While the name of spectral lines in starlight pales in comparison
to the rich tapestry of the Sun’s spectrum, several recognizable
patterns emerged. It seemed that the stars, which had for so long
been loosely categorized by brightness or color, could now be further
sorted according to spectral features hinting at their true nature.”
—Dava Sobel from The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of
the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars
If one light is actually many types of combined lights,
and if the Sun is something we barely know,
and if our knowledge is loosely based on nearly nothing,
and if nothing in the heavens is only the thing,
and if the thing we need is the fullest truth of star-beams,
then—if the unbearable darkness surrounding
all creation isn’t one darkness but many—maybe
we can start sorting out (the wheat from the chafed,
the chaff from the what) and end up: confused; happy.