Take more notice of the stars

“Take more notice of the stars” is both a maxim in Boaz Brandstetter’s personal code and a practical way of redirecting attention from conflict. Across his speech and letters, the stars offer neither instruction nor rescue; their value lies in the quiet and perspective he associates with looking beyond daily trouble.

A maxim in Boaz’s ten commandments

In a letter reflecting on her past with Alexander Gideon, Ilana Sommo records ten commandments in Boaz’s own words. “Take more notice of the stars” is the second, placed among instructions to pity everyone, resist bitterness and hatred, reject violence, and cool down. In this list, attention to the stars belongs to an ethical discipline: it is set against the impulses to mock, hate, and hurt others.

The maxim also contrasts with the account Ilana gives of Alexander’s earlier manner. She remembers his coldness, contempt, and readiness to answer opposition sharply, while Boaz’s commandments turn toward pity, restraint, and attention beyond immediate grievances. The stars thus serve as part of a compact alternative to the hostility described in her recollection.

A telescope and an imagined distance

When Ilana visits him, Boaz says he would like a serious telescope, imagining that it could let him watch spaceships crossing the country and see the dry sea on the moon. He connects this wish to his belief that people who paid more attention to the stars would pay less attention to the hassles surrounding them. The telescope is therefore more than a proposed purchase: in his account, looking outward offers a counterweight to the frictions that repeatedly accompany his dealings with people.

His imagined escape remains mixed with practical plans. In the same conversation, Boaz turns from the telescope to the possibility of a yacht and a cruise at sea, describing the prospect as a way to clear his head. The stars belong to a larger pattern of wanting distance from immediate pressures, even as he remains engaged with the work and arguments of ordinary life.

What the stars do—and do not—promise

In a later letter to Ilana Sommo and Michel Sommo, Boaz qualifies the idea. He says the stars do not speak or preach; instead, they make a person feel quiet in the soul. This explanation gives the maxim a deliberately modest force. The stars are not a source of doctrine or a promise that troubles will be solved, but a means of experiencing inward quiet without turning that experience into another redemption or argument.

The letter also places this reflection beside concrete requests and activity. Boaz accepts the money sent to him, reports buying a spray and a mower, and asks for further help toward a small tractor. He mentions taking writing lessons and says that he and the others hardly work on Saturdays. The contrast keeps the maxim grounded: looking at the stars may afford quiet, but it does not replace practical work or dependence on family assistance. Across the visit and the letters, the expression names a change of attention rather than an escape from responsibility.