I recently had the pleasure of traveling to St. Lucia, which is a small island nation in the Caribbean Sea. While there I marveled at the amount of stars that you could see at night. It reminded me of a time long ago when I was young. I would drive home from my job at a local club in the city to my humble abode far in the countryside. I always looked forward to that drive because at 3am the view was stunning when you reached the fields near my house and all the trees cleared out. You could see a ton of stars and it was a breathtaking sight. Over the years I’ve gotten quite addicted to looking at the stars and pondering the enormity of the universe and our small place in it. I think it’s important for perspective. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our own problems that we don’t take time to look at the vast world beyond and realize that our problems aren’t that bad after all.
Sadly these days we see less and less of the sky. Light pollution, driven by rapid population growth is slowly robbing us of the ability to see the nighttime sky. Street lights, cities and vast developments are slowly stretching as far as the eye can see. We are slowly losing the ability of the average person to see outside their own brightly lit world. I’ve been thinking about this ever since I got back from St Lucia but several days ago another connected thought dawned on me. Just as we are losing our ability to see beyond our world, we are also losing the ability to see beyond ourselves. These days we barely see beyond the glowing light of our cell phone, laptop or other mobile device. The constant stream of tweets, posts, emails, videos and games drown out any peace and quiet amongst a sea of white noise. Rarely do we get to have true rest and quiet time, not with all the bells and distractions all perfected to peak our interest and curiosity. It seems as if people are more and more content to stay in their cocoons, forsaking human contact for the comfort of their cyber solitude.
Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with technology, I just believe it’s allowing us to get so wrapped up in ourselves that we don’t stop to think about the world around us. I think just as it’s important to stop and take a look at the stars and the wonders that exist outside of our world, it’s also important to take a break and check out the world around us. Go for a hike, go for a walk, take a drive. The world is a pretty wondrous place and besides our overworked brains could use a little peace and quiet…
