at the four-way stop, i look to my right and see the other road a paler shade of black in the light of the half-moon.
i turn northwest and the woods come close to the road and it is the old familiar sight of the road, my headlights, and the night.
i come to another four-way stop, this one with a blinking red light hanging over the intersection. i turn south.
where the highway meets the interstate there are the futile and desperate clusters of tall poles with orange lights shining down.
this stretch of interstate is pretty dark and there aren’t many cars but where another highway meets it there is the same clusters of lights at the ends of the entrance and exit ramps. they seem to declare that we are man and at this quiet little intersection there will be light at 12:34 a.m. on a tuesday night in late summer.
finally, merge from i-494 onto i-94, head west into st. paul. everything is light, the arrogant surreal white lights at the car dealership.
the light is all laid out in symmetrical patterns and even, parallel rows but yet it is entirely chaotic.
i arrive on our street. quaint street lamps meant to look like they are left from another era but which shine with the same modern orange glow.
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That’s one of the things I like best about living out in the country; the absence of artificial light at night. It gets DARK here! But on a cloudy night, I can still see a dim orange glow to the south, and another off to the north; the pervasive lights of the city. What on earth do we need all that light for?
Deb– I’ll admit it, I’m jealous of you living in the country for the lack of light pollution if nothing else (and there is indeed a lot more). The sickly orange glow of the city night isn’t so bad until I spend an evening out in the “country.” I had just pulled out of my friend’s driveway the other night when I saw what is described in the first line of this piece… And it blew me away, to look out of the glow of my headlights and see the world lit by the moon, and it isn’t even full right now. Stirred something, and that led me to notice the light all the way back into the city. I don’t know what we need it all for, I just don’t know…