Light Pollution Reflection / Refraction Number 26
Posted October 13, 2008
WARNING:
I guarantee my reflections and refractions will create controversy and confrontation; and quite likely I'll step on many toes, but it's time to be brutally honest.
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One recent sunshiny day, the following Reflection and Refraction (R and R) arrived on my doorstep...well, ok, in my e-mail inbox, a contribution to the Dark Sky Initiative by Lloyd Larson of Minnesota. Lloyd writes:
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Hey, Stargeezer! Wake Up!
"Jack. Oh Jack!"
Loud snoring fills the bedroom. The bedroom lights suddenly snap on.
"HEY, STARGEEZER! WAKE UP!"
"What? Who's there? Wha..? Are you an IDA official wanting me to send extra membership money for your glossy magazine?"
"No. No. It's Me. You know. ME."
"Ah, yeah. Are you sure you got the right person?"
"Don't you publish the Dark Sky Initiative website?"
"Yes . . ."
"Well, then, you're the guy."
"But . . ."
"I thought of appearing in a burning bush, but inside a house, well, it's not such a good idea. Anyway, I was surfing the web the other day, doing a Google search of My name, and I stumbled across your website. You're kind of devilish, aren't you? Railing against all the corps. and the system and the environmental degradation of the planet."
"Well, yes. Oh, I didn't mean to hurt Your feelings. I promise I won't swear any more in my Rs & Rs. I suppose I shouldn't lose my temper."
"But it's your temper that caught My attention. It's your anger and commitment I like. We need to talk. Or, rather, I need to talk, and you need to hark. I'm big on people harking.
"Just to refresh your memory, Jack, (since I doubt you've been reading My Book as much as you ought), I might remind you that once upon an early time I said 'Let there be light.' And there was. Plenty of it. And, as you'd expect from anything I created, it was just the right amount of light, not too much and not too little. Lots of good, warming sunlight during the day and at night plenty of darkness so you could see My universe.
"It's the best thing I've done, Jack. You know, I use to think you humans were the best thing I created, but of late I'm not so sure... Well, I digress...
"YOU DON’T MIND IF I DIGRESS, DO YOU?"
Pulling the covers up to his chin and scrooching down... "No, No. Whatever you say."
"Anyway, to continue... Everything seemed to be fine for century upon century until you humans stumbled upon electricity.
"But now, instead of using this form of energy in a sensible, modest way to light your interiors at night and maybe for a little outdoor security, you did what you humans always do: you made more and more and more lighting, You made it bigger and brighter and stronger and more intense. And you aimed it up and down and sideways and crossways and flashing and colored and always ON!
"Currently, you humans are even lighting up the night sky - MY SKY - to such a degree that the beauty of My universe can no longer be seen.
"This is unacceptable. Did I say that loud enough?
"THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!"
"So, I'm deputizing you - Jack 'Lights Out' Troeger - to be an Old Testament prophet. (You really should grow a beard and wear sandals, but I'll let that pass for now.)
"Lord knows you haven't led a perfect life, Jack. I mean, I KNOW you haven't led a perfect life. But you'll have to do."
"What do you mean 'deputize'?"
"I mean spread the word of My displeasure. No, of My anger.
"Tell people you're speaking for the Big Guy. Tell them I'm angry and I'm not going to take it any more. Tell them to stop worshiping the false gods of technology - especially those electrical gods."
"But I've been doing that."
"Yes, but not for the right reason. Oh, I know some of you scientific types want to study My Creation through those funny tubes and those beanie little satellites you shoot around in space. That's okay. The mysteries I've created are meant to be explored. And, I suppose it would be a little more convenient to have dark skies to do this.
"However, that's not the main reason that outside lighting must be more controlled. It's more fundamental than that.
"Have you humans forgotten that all knowledge BEGINS in wonder. Have you forgotten that nothing - absolutely nothing - is as incredibly exciting and stimulating as the night sky? Have you forgotten that seeking to understand the world around you originates in the mystery of the stars? Do you not realize how a sense of proportion and scale and perspective is conveyed by the night sky?
"All important values are most essentially experienced by looking at the night sky: humility, wonder, beauty, thinking, questioning, imagining, storytelling. And silence. Especially inner silence.
"So it's really important that everyone on Earth be able to see My universe, staring up on clear, cloudless nights in jaw dropping, heart stopping wonderment. This is the essential human experience because it conveys what it means to be alive on Earth. It is the source of all forms of spirituality, both secular and religious.
"This is what you must convey to people as my deputy, Jack. This is what you must make them realize. Suggest to them that, in a way, the future of the human species depends on being able to see the night sky.”
Silence.
"Well, okay. Can I maybe work a couple of miracles?"
"Not a chance in hel . . . I mean. I think it would be best if you continued to prophesy about the coming times if people don't change. That will be enough. Now go back to sleep, Jack. You have a lot of work to do."
"Yes, suddenly I am kind of tired...(Sleepily)...are you sure I couldn't do one little miracle? Maybe multiplying loaves and sushi or freeing all the hogs from their confinements or getting to talk to a real tech person when I have a computer problem or . . . Z Z Z z z z z z z."
The bedroom lights wink out.
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Sunny Days and Milky Way Nights.
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© Jack Troeger, Dark Sky Initiative. troegerj@raccoon.com