The romantic melancholy of city lights

They sparkle like a firmament of multi-coloured stars. They surround us every night, yet we are always taken by them, impressed, enraptured or otherwise intrigued.

There is something truly unique about city lights glowing at night. Their multitude comes together in a coherent whole, shining upon us and reminding us that we are alive.

Indeed, city lights are the very symbol of man's conquest of its environment. During the day, we are all subject to the omnipresent sunlight rays, diffused or direct, but always bearing down on every one of us in the same way. Under the sun, we are all the same. At night, we prolong our worldly presence and our conscious awakened state by turning on that very human of inventions: artificial lights. And each one of those lights makes us unique.

With lights, we conquered the darkness, and with it, we opened up our minds. The dark no longer held mysteries and fears, only possibilities that begged to be pushed further. With light, we prolongued our days and stretched our creative drives deeper into the night. And with light, we marked the obscure hours and claimed them as our own, decorating our nocturnal habitat with trophies of incandescence. We raised the flag of luminescence as our beacon of self-righteous dominion over the universe. Where once before, only the moon and stars shone in the blackness of night, bulbs, flames and diodes now dot the landscape. We own the night, and we kill it with brightness every way we can.

The romantic part of this fact comes from the intentional design of our city lights. More than functional, they are very often decorative, even artistic in their display. They add a sense of wonder to the buildings they are anchored to. They embody the very essence of our pursuit for a higher purpose. Most of all, they remind us of who we are.

When staring at a cityscape, lit brightly in the shelter of night, ask yourself what that glow means. Not the glow of the multitude of sparkling artificial stars hung across the concrete branches of criss-crossing streets, but the one that warms your heart as you contemplate the spectacle they form.

What you are feeling is the reassurance that out there are other lives like yours, other people, other chances to share an experience.

Because lights tell us we are not alone.

Then you can look up at the stars, and feel better knowing that somewhere out there, someone else is gazing at our planet and thinking the exact same thing...