Ekon's Idols (Part 2)

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Reidar Stjerne
“Uncle Rei” – Born in Harstad, Norway
My dad’s friend and coworker at the Tenerife Observatory

When my family moved to Tenerife about twenty years ago, one of our first friends was Reidar Stjerne.  He was a member of the hiring team that brought my dad to the Observatory, and he made every effort to help us relocate to the island without any issues.  His hospitality continued as we got settled into our new home, and in return my parents often invited him to attend our family dinners as an honorary family member – hence his title as "Uncle Rei" to me.  Rei was very receptive to building a strong relationship with my parents, although I would only learn later in my life why this connection was so meaningful to him.  Born in a small village in the north of Norway, Rei was all too familiar with geologic isolation.  He also lost his parents as a teenager, which only added to his feeling of solitude.  He emigrated from Norway in search of a stronger community network and to escape the constant reminders of his loss.  He still lives alone, but his new surroundings hardly resemble anything from remote Norway, and time has healed his wounds.

Uncle Rei is very soft spoken and deliberate with his words.  He seems completely content to enjoy company as an observer rather than as an active participant, but when he decides to speak up, he has a mysterious ability to command the attention of the room.  Despite being quiet, it seems that the whole island knows who Rei is and what makes him special.  He has the status of a wise elder, but he doesn’t seem like an old man to me.  Maybe it’s his passion for his astronomy, where he can think creatively about the world like we all do as kids.  Inspired by regular encounters with clear starry nights and the northern lights where he grew up, Uncle Rei now studies the chemical signatures within exoplanet atmospheres to help identify places beyond Earth that might be hospitable for biological activity.  He doesn’t really believe in intelligent alien life out there, but he’s hopeful there is at least some algae or bacteria teeming in another solar system.  That would please Uncle Rei I’m sure, although I think he is content enough with the act of searching itself.

He is also a health nut who prioritizes living a healthy life in all ways possible.  He loves swimming and surfing to stay in shape, even giving names to the waves while out in the ocean.  He also grows vegetables on his patio, he knows an unsettling amount about the nutritional properties of various teas and herbal remedies, and he makes his own fermented rakfish and gamalost cheese to have an authentic taste of his hometown always on hand.  (They smell terrible, but for some reason he swears by their nutritional value.)  No matter how much it contradicts his normal principles, Uncle Rei does also eat an unnatural amount of dark chocolate peanut butter cups, justifying the behavior on account of both cacao and peanuts deriving from the earth, but this is the only way he strays from his wellness standards.

Uncle Rei is a major role model in my life because he was the first person outside of my family that taught me the importance of routine and discipline, both of which are still extremely valuable in my life as a professional football player.  While I may not have the same commitments to clean eating and exoplanet astronomy that he does, Uncle Rei showed me what it looks like to act according to your goals – the mold for a purposeful life.  Later in my childhood, he also helped me work through my perfectionism, which originated with my parents’ high expectations for me.  The cover of Uncle Rei’s notebook reads “Things I Almost Understand”, and Rei really believes that perfection is overrated.  The loss of his family has also stayed with him as a conviction that nothing is truly permanent, so being pliable to the ever-evolving world is a better behavior to strive for than nailing down everything without flaws.  It is no wonder that Uncle Rei was drawn to a volcanic island that is under constant but imperceptible changes, and I hope I can approach the evolution and uncertainty of my career with the same tranquility as Uncle Rei.