Light Pollution - The Price of Progress?

I love the stars. I have a link to the Astronomy Picture of the Day in the right-hand banner of my blog, and I start every day by clicking on this link and viewing some of the magnificence of the universe. They had a picture two days ago from Mauna Kea that was indescribably beautiful. As you move through the picture from left to right, you are left totally mesmerized by the heavens above. Why aren't we all out looking at our amazing panorama nightly? Light pollution. I live in the city. There are many advantages to living in the city, and I'm not sure I'm brave enough to become a country girl on a full-time basis. But living in the country, closer to nature and further from the city lights, allows you to see this wonderful painting of the sky. I've been in the country and far away from "civilization", but usually even in the far away places, there are some lights somewhere that are affecting the view. Light pollution has cut us off from our origins and turned our focus to a very small area from the vastness above.

People will translate that small, insular look of their surroundings to their immediate environment. We build shelter because we don't want to be exposed to all of the rain, snow, cold and other less than wonderful weather. We also build shelter for protection from other people and security for items that we cherish (items that are starting to get out of control for so many of us). The same thing can happen on the psychic level. We can build shelters for our mind (or our art). We erect walls for comfort, deciding that we will create within those walls. In extreme cases we can even build a full structure. But a creative person will view the walls and roof with suspicion and will, when able, blow up the roof and collapse the walls - creating their art "outside the box". I'm not fond of trite sayings, but it does seem that mankind is more comfortable inside a box than outside, and the challenge of any artist is twofold: 1) Get yourself out of your own personal box of comfort and create something entirely new, and 2) Through this artwork of your creation, chip away at the walls that others are creating to allow them to experience the joy that the panorama of the heavens allows. Turn off your personal light pollution and revel in the larger universe of creation. Valar valuvar.