European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 12, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                British tourist authority the Royal Observatory straddles the prime Meridian the spot where the Sun begins each  takes on new meaning at Greenwich England by Richard o Mara the Baltimore Sun Greenwich England this is where the Day begins. The world is divided East from West by the prime Meridian of 0 degrees Longitude. It runs through the Center of the old Royal Observatory in Flamsteed House built on a Green Hill in London s Greenwich Park in 1675 by King Charles ii. It is the Sun s starting Point each Day the line from which the nations of the world have reckoned Longitude since 1884. The Meridian is of course an abstract thing represented by a brass strip embedded in the ground. It creates a great curiosity. You can stand astride it one leg in the Eastern hemisphere and one leg in the Western. There Are 65 acres to Greenwich Park they slope Down toward the Tudor Palace called Placentia on the River Bank. Henry Viii was born there and it was there he married three of his six wives Catherine of Aragon Anne Boleyn and Anne of Cleves and England s greatest Queen in the estimate of some Elizabeth i was born Here As Well. She was the daughter of Henry and Anne Boleyn. This year the English celebrated the 500th anniversary of Henry s birth. They put on an exhibition of his accomplishments and failures in the Park s National maritime museum his principal accomplishment May have been to Lay the foundation for the Royal Navy the instrument that enabled the British to dominate much of the world in the 19th Century. His failures were mainly in the bedroom the exhibit attracted great numbers of visitors. Many would have gone to Greenwich anyway because it is such a pleasant place reached in about an hour by boat from the Dock at Westminster the famous Clipper ship Cutty Sark is moored near the Park As is the Small Sailboat Gypsy Moth that took sir Francis Chichester around the world Solo in 1967. The Royal Observatory s purpose was to make precise the astronomical tables used by sailors generally to improve navigation across the seas. The meridians of Longitude Divide the Globe spatially but also in terms of time they March around the planet like segments of an Orange each line representing an hour and come together at the poles. Time. That s what one is encouraged to think about Here. Inside the octagonal red Brick House designed by Christopher Wren there is a vast collection of chronometers astrolabes telescopes of various lengths and Powers. They attest to the astronomers obsession with time. Not time As history or flowing time but time As a tool. The Observatory was a great clock similar to but much More sophisticated than the Earth clocks built by the neolithic people in Britain s prehistory at stonehenge and other places. The work done Here was to bring time into the service of Man. They acted on time. One wonders if time acted on them in any Way. Did Edmund Hailey a for whom the Comet was named who is buried Here and had been one of the Royal astronomers a Ever look North from the Hill Down Over the Queen s Palace to the slag Gray thames arcing Down from Central London and Brood Over what the knowledge of time has done to the human heart the Argentine novelist Ernesto Sabato says tragedy Springs from the knowledge of time. It makes Man understand that he will die. And so will those he loves As will his children and so on it is a knowledge that is a Barrier to deep happiness. Human beings Are different from All other beings mainly because of their awareness of time past and time future. Still the knowledge of time is a Boon. No one would doubt that. It encourages us to plan to improve. What do we pay for this Boon we have conferred on us what . Fraser called Quot the melancholy of the time knowing  Fraser who wrote a Book called time the familiar stranger carried the idea further. He wrote that All the arts and letters the sciences All the truly thrilling cerebral pleasures and maybe some of the Flesher ones As Well Are opiates to deflect people who think from the natural inclination to turn to the contemplation of death. Art is an opiate Joyce Cary one of Britain s better novelists who died not Long ago wrote that Art is Quot a spell against  Cary and Fraser were two men toying with the same notion attracted by the depressing curious Ness of it. But it need not be seen that Way. In the summer when the rain stops and the Sun appears the English Rush into Greenwich Park throwing off their shirts and exposing flesh As White As lard their arms and torsos decorated with new tattoos a very much the fashion these Days even among Young women. They fill the Park below Flamsteed House picnicking beneath the Oaks and sycamores kicking soccer balls and sprawling on the spongy grass of the slopes. From the Bottom of the Hill looking up at the Observatory and All the frolicking people you get a different perspective a and a different conviction comes As a result. The Hill was a platform for looking to the stars never Down into the human roil. But seeing the people today with their Beer and sandwiches their relentless Pursuit of natural pleasure while the Sun shines and you know that they know time s value. 24 stripes Magazine december 12, 1991 a