belonging to the stars

Limping home from another chapter of "St. Albert's Book Sale: The Epic," I encountered my partner Tim eager to share many bits of baseball knowledge with the hope of drawing me into the Twins/Tigers game on TV.  I confess... I'm enjoying becoming a part-time baseball fan.  But the other, between innings topic of conversation had to do with astrology, geometry and the concept of sidereal time, which had the potential for more long-term captivation than a 13-inning game which we eventually lost.

I love to encounter concepts that are new to me, especially when they have a kind of built-in poetry.  Tim admitted he didn't really know why the particular concept of time he was studying was called "sidereal"... but, of course, that's the thing I most wanted to know, etymology buff that I am.

So I've looked it up, and it means "of, or belonging to, the stars", from the Latin word "sidus" (star or constellation.)  A sidereal day is determined by reference to one or more stars.  I took Latin in high school. I spent a decade or more as a pre-Vatican II Catholic.  Why did I not know this word for star? What happened to "stella"? (Insert Marlon Brando howling "Stella!" here.)

As Joni Mitchell reminded us, "we are stardust". I believe her particular "we" to be every created thing.  So here's a haiku about how a stardust-based life form keeps its sidereal day:

Sidereal time:
two sparrow-hops a second
is the grey day's clock.

(It's a haiku day because all I did with pie dough today, despite my best laid plans, was eat it. Thanks to Glenda and the Social Hall Culinarians* for the excellent apple pie!) 

* Culinary:  of ,or pertaining to, the kitchen; from the Latin "culin," kitchen or food.