The idea might sound as nonsensical as Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky and appear to be most absurd, but the truth is there can be shown to be clear benefits for some of our politicians in paying the famous Atacama Desert a visit at night.
Honestly speaking, it is not even intended to be a sarcastic proposition. What is there in the Atacama Desert for them to see, though? And whatever there is to see, how can it possibly bring a change in them? Well, the reader must be patient!
The Atacama Desert is literally an empty and barren place; and of course, that is the point of calling it a desert. Indeed, you cannot expect tourism to flourish in a desert. No one finds the sight of an endless prairie very pleasing. In fact, being in a desert for long periods can be a very depressing experience since some of them resemble Martian surfaces, completely devoid of vegetation or living inhabitants.
Surprisingly though, the Atacama Desert hosts an astonishingly high number of visitors almost all year round. What attraction does the Atacama Desert possess then which is able to lure so many tourists? What the Atacama offers does not belong to this planet.
It is the pristine night sky that makes the otherwise completely ordinary desert an extraordinarily special place. Chile’s Atacama can boast of the world’s best night sky viewing conditions.
At night the sky reveals an astonishing view of the outside universe and our home galaxy, a view which is otherwise impossible to witness from any other location of our home planet. Those of us who live in the city and are used to the sky at night revealing only a handful of its stars can expect to be left completely without words at the sight of the Atacama night sky past. An uncountable number of stars dot the entire sky with such an unimaginable density that no adjective can be confidently used to qualify the breathtaking beauty.
The specialty, however, is most definitely the clearest possible view of the Milky Way bulge. The mysteriously stupefying solemn pulchritude of the magnificent Atacama sky is due to the high altitude of the location, low local humidity and other geographic advantages. The Europeans have established an astronomical observatory there and it has some of the largest telescopes employed to try and capture the undeniable abstract beauty of a night sky studded by an innumerable number of stars.
Even if you do not possess costly telescopes, your naked eyes alone can bring to you a beauty that has no parallel. And that is why such a large number of amateur star gazers travel to Chile’s Atacama Desert from about all corners of the world. And if the reader is thinking I am unnecessarily being verbose about the beauty of the Atacama night sky, I kindly request him or her to use Google to verify the fact that the ineffable magnificence is well beyond the capacity of any language to describe and no amount of words would ever be enough to paint a clear picture of it. Such is its loveliness. Such is its power to enchant.
Yes, the Atacama night sky shows us a spectacular night sky that has no parallel; but how would your politicians benefit from visiting this desert and beholding what is there to see?
Well, it will present to those politicians, probably, a rare opportunity to ponder about how insignificant our existence is in this literally and truly endless universe. They probably would also be able to perceive that we are floating in the middle of nowhere in a pitch black ocean of nothingness clinging to a strange spinning ball called earth circling a large fireball we call sun.
Our planet can actually not be honoured by being described even an infinitesimal dot, our sun, the source of all energy on our planet, is actually a mediocre average star, our galaxy is only an ordinary one of billions of other galaxies floating about in this forever stretching universe.
The perception of this insignificance and smallness associated with our existence usually has an unusual effect on a human being. He becomes humble and lowers his head in recognition of his own insignificance. He also learns to question his endless enthusiasm in pursuit of material achievements, and develops a queer apathy to the mundane struggles and races for opportunity and affluence.
With the comprehension of one’s smallness comes the alleviation of animal urges of revenge, jealousy and lust for power. Such is the spiritual healing power of the Atacama night sky.
It should not be a mystery anymore to the wise reader as to why a visit to the Atacama night sky is prescribed. Just like people with ill health are suggested to travel to places with healthy weather, those who are suffering from mental insularity can surely benefit from a sight that has the capacity to heal spiritually.
The country is experiencing turmoil of an unprecedented intensity today and we all need a bit of spiritual healing to attain the power to dispel the evil that is spreading like an ominous cloud in our sky.
We really need to stop being slaves so immaturely to our common enemies – avarice, jealousy and lust for power and recognition. We also must learn to look at our own faults before criticizing others and being such despicable narcissists. In discovering our natural spirituality lays the secret of our unity. Will our politicians wake up and start to rebuild on unity?