Spaced Out

THE BRIEF

All Aazaad ever needed was space.
And more space.
It was a place farther than anyone could offer.

Too alien for Earth, Aazaad rocketed into outer space.
A journey through this cosmos is really an expedition into himself.
Only to discover how unmistakably human he is.

Even so, the astronaut’s scope remains as limitless as the universe itself.
Every galaxy Aazaad comes upon reveals a new dimension of him.
He thinks. He entertains. He listens and learns. He writes and recites.
And from all those zillion miles away, despite the space between us, he touches your very soul.



THE STORY

There are people who are like planets in their own inimitable orbits.
Figures of speech aside, there are people who literally live celestial lives by example.
For when the Earth is not enough, the cosmos certainly is.
It has to be.

Outer space allows enough room for us to expand ourselves whole; to stretch and sprawl and may be sprinkle some stories – those extensions of ourselves – like stardust, over a landing yet to be located.
It allows enough darkness for deliberation,
enough routes for roving,
an infinitude for immersion into the depths of the heights of knowns and unknowns alike,
sweet silence even – the quiet solitude that is such a rarity these days,
for observation, for discovery, for exposure to alternate realities perhaps
and above all an appreciation of the Earth and its bounty.

Aazaad has the freedom to be in a daze. To gaze. To have a phase. To let himself be amazed.
Zone in. Zone out. Mull or mutter when he must.
The stars we look up at, he’s among them.
And he’s the same person he was,
when he was eleven, under the same stars, camping out in the backyard with his favourite gadget;
when he was thirteen, singing to a set of eyes sparkling in the stars;
when he was eighteen, driving alone, stopping at the edge of the city, looking up at the same stars.
That boy – big and little – walking down a cobblestone street, riding a canoe, staring out the back window of a car, looking up at the same stars.
Here where the world begins and ends, nothing ever stops happening.

He embraces losing consciousness on Earth for a higher consciousness in space.
Technologies change as do the spaces we inhabit. Aazaad records these changes as he recalls life, love and literature on Earth. They lift him up. He looks at the old from the new and is intrigued by the splendour, ingenuity and worth of them both.
Somehow in these reminiscences, a sharp-eyed Aazaad becomes as solidly grounded as he is lofty.
Out here, in a space of his own. A place he now calls home.

WASTE AND WEALTH

War is a waste. And Land is full of them. It is part of the reason I chose space. Out here, the darkness comes with peace. Down there,...

STARRY NIGHTS

As a teenager, I would spend many nights lying on the tiny balcony in our house, gazing steadily up at the stars. I was...

LOST IN SPACE

Aazaad is stranded on something that looks and feels like a planet. But he couldn’t be sure. He contacts NASA and this is what...

WHO AM I?

Free is a feeling we all want to feel. We also desperately want to know who we are and remind ourselves every so often....

ANOTHER WORLD IS OURS

There’s more things going around the Sun than we think. I’m going to find this 10th planet. I know it’s got to be here...

Thoughts Over A Midnight Snack

Is this even the right thing to do? To stuff my face when ideally my mouth and eyes should both be shut. I'll take an...

Podcast: A Whole Wild New World

 

Podcast: Spaced Out – The Story

   

Splayce-list. Track One.

You might think there’s a lot happening here in space. Comets and meteors flying across. Stars burning. Sun shining. Planets dying. Asteroids striding. Constellations...

A Whole Wild New World

I’ve been dodging exoplanets. Some of them have the gall to make sharp turns; to switch direction and orbit in reverse, on a whim,...