After the Storm : Artwork 6

The phrase predates its most famous uses by centuries. Seneca used its sentiment in his letters; Virgil's Aeneid is built on the same logic. But its longevity is the real argument: from Roman stoic philosophy to the motto of Kansas (1867) to NASA's memorial plaque for the Apollo 1 crew who died in the launch pad fire of 1967, the phrase has been chosen at the moments of greatest difficulty as the right thing to say. What makes it endure is the preposition: not to the stars by reaching for them, or to the stars with the help of someone who has cleared the way, but per aspera — through the rough terrain, through the difficulty itself. Aspera does not mean hardship in the abstract: it means rough, jagged, the quality of ground that makes walking painful. The stars are not a reward for having survived it — they are what is reached by going through it rather than around it. The closing piece of the After the Storm collection: the statement that belongs at the end of the difficult time, looking at where the difficulty led.