Aroostook skies:
The Starman of Alcatraz
By Larry Berz
In the early 1960s, the actor Burt Lancaster starred in “The Birdman of Alcatraz”, an unforgettable performance of the convicted murderer Robert Strout, sentenced to life imprisonment in various federal penitentiaries.
During that singular incarceration earlier in the 20th century, Strout awakens to the needs of a small sparrow which light within his prison cell. Born anew, Strout over the course of solitary years begins to glean the ultimate lessons of human freedom — that in caring and healing others, one heals oneself. As we lose our past, we reawaken to our future while the present becomes just that — a gift to share with our own community.
The murderer transcends his own rage and transfigures into a healer. Still behind bars, transferred to the maximum security facility upon Alcatraz Island off the coast of San Francisco, Strout’s metamorphosis overcomes the unforgiveness of his hard-hearted legalistic warden (portrayed by the perhaps forgotten artistic genius of Karl Malden) as well as the doomed rage of a young inmate leading a lost cause rebellion in the prison. The film concludes with Strout enshackled and cuffed on Earth but his Spirit unbound gazing upward in communion with the birds of modern technology — the contrails and shrieking song of jet aircraft.
Today, I stand here facing upward under the adult constraints called “responsibility” which any conscience citizen of The County would easily recognize. Whether domestic, automotive, professional, seasonal, environmental, financial, mechanical, or physical, the necessities of a modern life demand a peculiar allegiance for the sake of “stability.” And the Judge could certainly intone the laws of such a contract with explicit clarity, noting the way we signed on the dotted line.
But I also stand here facing upward released by a certain grace and gift, called the sky, which freely and unconditionally gives a remarkable renewal to compensate for the unyielding face of “responsibility.” Up there unfolds the road less traveled, engaging our spirit as well as our senses.
By taking the necessary time to seed our minds with the sublime celestial sights that even a pair of binoculars handily reveals, I can assert and promise you an inner life awakening which defies the worst darts of daily demands. To cultivate the inner eye restores our better nature to the images of diamond-like congregations of deeply distant star as well as the tiny funnel-shaped nebulous mysteries called galaxies. To exercise our inner vision, we look for signposts and tools to clear the clutter. We can all become in time and space champions of the night, heroes of the daybreak.
Early May reveals the subtler side of the night and day. A carnival of atmospheric variation challenges our sensibilities — furious snowflakes melt in the raw increases of vaulting sunlight. Crystal clarity at twilight vanishes in moments of condensing cumulus clouds spoiling the starry messengers. Telescopes invite connection with galactic ghosts while the planets from victorious Venus, to militant Mars, and saturnine Saturn, all perform their accustomed acrobatics. Tickets, bah! No charge for this performance.
Cultivate your solitude and join the flock as the Starman of Alcatraz performs his own community concert!
Larry Berz is director of Easton’s Francis Malcolm Planetarium and astronomy instructor at the Maine School of Science and Mathematics.
