Stars

Out with the dog, I looked up at a clear Portland sky, a few stars visible. That's what clear sky has come to mean in the city. The real night sky, the mind- boggling, humbling canopy of distant fire, the variety of elements, fuzzy nebulae, congested clusters, steady planets, is invisible to city dwellers, and some never see the real sky in their lifetimes. This is a great loss, a great spiritual loss, because at the very least a real sky reminds us of our smallness and ignorance, knowledge without which we act on arrogance never in our best interests. In building comfort, we also build ignorance and lose perspective.