oh the curses of the world. beautiful.
Random Observation/Comment #70: The city’s (of course, there is only one “the city”) light pollution had made my star gazing hobbies impossible to fulfill. Osaka had a similar problem, but Nagasaki on top of a large mountain, was a little more forgiving. Not a cloud in the sky – not a worry in the world. I loved every second. I only wish I had someone to hold from behind and kiss to share this perfect moment.
I remember a time when I used to know at least 20 constellations and each of their meanings. Of course, this useless knowledge (well maybe useless except for impressing the opposite sex) was core dumped a long time ago to make room for useful stuff like, electrohydrodynamics, Navier-Stokes Equations, and Poisson distributions. Fantastic. My brain needs to learn to keep the good stuff.
The tram ride up to the mountain kept me mesmerized. I looked down and saw Nagasaki as a giant creature. It almost looked like an amoeba covered with lights devouring the landscape. The small flickers from the trolleys and cars throughout the city kept catching my glance. For some reason, every time I’m in these situations, I see myself looking from the top of the tower instead of seeing it through my own eyes. Do you remember the camera pan in Titanic when Rose spreads her arms and stands at the front of the boat? The camera circles around the entire boat while showing the 360-degree view of the world around her. This was how I saw myself – completely free with an unreal view before my eyes.
Screw taking pictures that probably won’t come out nice. I walked around the roof of that building and just took my mental snapshots of the twinkles above and the twinkles below. I thought a lot about a lot of things, as usual. I don’t even know why I became so philosophical and psychological – I wasn’t even drinking. My life felt so insignificant. I couldn’t even grasp the simple concepts of time and space. How far away was that light shining in the valley below? How far away is that burning gaseous sun in the dark night? Just trying to picture a light-year given my current references is impossible. Trying to picture a nanometer blows my mind even more.
As I thought about things that I normally didn’t give much second thought to, my eyes opened to an unexplainable connection. Here I am. Here’s the entire universe with its unbounded complexities. I am a hiccup in time and a crumb in space. If I stopped thinking here, I would have eventually become depressed. Fortunately, I looked at the world that I can realistically observe. What does it matter if I’m nothing to the universe? I am something to those around me. With that thought, I smiled at the sight before me. I can’t wait to share.
After taking my hundreds of pictures on the mountain, the group went back to grab some “Chinese food” for dinner (it wasn’t Chinese at all). I think they tried to make gawn chow ngow haw with ramen… I don’t know what they were thinking. The only thing that dinner did was made me miss my Mom’s home cooking (and provide beer).
After dinner, part of the group went to sing some karaoke. We planned to stay for an hour but wound up staying 4 hours instead (this often happens). Singing “Imagine” got it out of my system. Mad K skills, son (It’s scary that I actually sometimes talk like that. Damn you, James).
~See Lemons Admire the Night Sky
an ameoba devouring the land
