Gravitational eyesore

So there I was standing over the roof of my house, looking at the star-lit sky. The light pollution was taking a toll on the visibility of the stars, yet the major constellations and stars were visible.

I could easily spot the Orion

, Canis major, and Taurus constellations as well as the stars Aldebaran, Betelguese, Sirius and the Pleiades cluster. I could also remember their corresponding Malayalam names; since all these heavenly bodies were baptized by all these greatest ancient civilizations that ever existed. They were so important for time keeping for our ancestors. It was around 300CE that both Indian and Greek astrological discoveries were homogenized with 12 zodiac months which were calibrated based on the movement of the sun through them.

Pleiades formation was slightly far to the northwest side where the orange haze from the light pollution had considerably reduced it's visibility. I felt pity at how humans have forgotten mother nature and traveled so far in the name of modernization; shitting over their ancestors as well. The stars, which once helped the navigators cross the mighty oceans, are no longer important for them…But hey! Astrology!!!

All these thoughts were driving me "high". I took a piece of twig lying around and began to point at the stars, giving myself a presentation on backyard astronomy. As I was getting more and more drunk, a piece of bark promptly decided to flake off and landed straight into my left eye! It stang like hell. That twig was supposedly from a mango tree nearby, with some chemical warfare still left in it

My train of thought shifted direction now. Why did the bark crack apart? Why did it fall into my eye? Why the pain bothered me even though I was in an astronomy lecture?

As far as the pain was concerned, mangoes, poison ivy, cashew and others, are all members of Anacardiaceae botanical family. Therefore all of them have a common genetic material to produce a rather ominous sounding chemical called Urushiol, which makes the sting. The bark flaked off since the twig had been baking under a full sun in the morning. It fell into my eye because, you know, gravity! It's the same phenomenon holding the planets and stars in their orbits and making them shine.

Now we have astronomy, urushiol, taxonomy, my left eye, the sun and the stars in the equation. I had to solve it before I turn away and go downstairs. I derive that astronomy and taxonomy (nom nom nom) are vaguely related. Astronomy showed us the big bang, energy distribution, formation of galaxies, the sun, solar system, planets and the earth. Then taxonomy is here trying to solve the second big bang that occurred on a hostile young earth 3.5 billion years ago- Life! It could rewind all the evolution that ever happened to a hypothetical LCA, just like how the former hypothesized big bang theory. What existed before it may never be known.

But why did my eyes hurt when I was immersed in a marvelous thought? It's quite simple actually. Our mental attributes cannot change the physical ones. The eyes are interested in protecting the visual system and processing the light data, rather than what shit storm-ery is going in my mind. It's just like saying you cannot stop a speeding train with your mind. However, your mind does alter your visual perception.

As I was turning away, satisfied with finding a faint solution to the problem, I could a see a fainter red mars setting on the western horizon. Rust from the roof had also my hands red. Presence of iron on both stuffs, but why???