WONDERFUL COSMOS.

^{let's set the mood...}

do you have a bucket list? can't say i have much of one myself.

while there's things i definitely look forward to in life, there's not a lot of things that i feel like i'd NEED to experience before i die.
i could DO without a partner, family, sex, fame, wealth, etc. cause, while all of that sounds nice, i can imagine a decent life no matter what combination of these you put together. NOT that they're particularly undesirable for me, but you probably understand: if it comes, it comes; if it doesn't, it doesn't.

however, there is ONE thing on my list.

when you look up at the clear night sky, what do you see? depending on where you live, you might see something different. personally, i see a bunch of little white dots somewhat distant from eachother. some of these "stars" are definitely just man-made objects posing as such, but it's a pleasant sight to look up at, especially on the outskirts of town, where there're a few more stars you can spot.

if you live in a very populous major city, you probably see nothing; nothing but the black-yellow void decorated with commercial airliners that somehow aren't the loudest thing around you, which serves as a background to numerous skyscrapers that you probably don't even know the purpose of...

whatever it may be, it's highly likely that both you and me... are not seeing everything.

industria, rievopltuon and its conequencs. (Funny)

mankind's achievements in conquering nature have been staggering, we know this too well. the cold is no problem, we have magic carbon mixtures to heat us up. the night is no problem, we have artificial lights to light up our houses and roads.
...and that unfortunately has its drawbacks.

while no doubt carbon emissions are a much, MUCH larger problem than light pollution could ever hope to be (and smog plays a part in this issue too), the latter deprives me of a psychological need i've developed: to see the unobstructed, full night sky, with my own two eyes.

now, i'm no astronomy buff, but... WOW... what a... wonderfully-woven tapestry of little suns, thousands of beautiful nebulae serving as a collective backdrop to the countless stars visible from earth. it's a sight worthy of hundreds upon thousands of endearing adjectives. the fact that this is out there? on the same pile of rocks that you and i trudge through our day-to-day on? wow...

then i look back outside and are forced to face the reality that what i see out there is a pathetic imitation of this jpeg i'm looking at. a jpeg.

there's not a lot of populated places on earth like this. this specific image is from a telescope site in rural chile, but... i'm in poland. perhaps decades ago when this country was licking its nazi-inflicted wounds with soviet saliva, and warsaw was still rubble, i could've seen this here. not anymore. not here, and not anywhere near, for to the west of me are densely populated and developed countries where this problem is even worse, up to the very shore of the atlantic; and east of me, a raging war and authoritarian governments occupy any sites where the clear night sky is visible. even then, it's not like travel is cheap, not even just out of europe, but out of country.

what's especially maddening is that i've seen clearer night skies than the one in my town, and i've been amazed by them, even if in comparison to this they were pretty much still nothing. so... just imagining seeing this myself... it makes me want to cry - cry tears of joy because of how astoundingly beautiful such a sight would be, and cry tears of anguish because i may very well never, EVER experience it - and that's saying a lot, because i can't cry very well.