The night

Today, I want to talk about to talk about my favourite time of day, night. The reasoning behind this is not something significant rather than my adoration for the things I see during this period of time. There is just something about this period of time that is so euphoric as though you are comfortably alone in the world. I think it's because of moments like these that I have really come to like the night and the experiences that I have garnered here. In this article, I would not like to take that deep of an analysis with my upcoming End of Year exams and will take a more opinionated lens of the many features of the night that truly stand out to me as the most interesting.

Right as of this moment while writing, it is a good 1am which really invokes the pleasant feelings of the night. It is rather quiet; many have gone to sleep, getting ready for the next day though I still remain to enjoy this moment of peace. As it is summer at the moment, this is the only time where the sun is not a constant hellfire making me really appreciate this very calming environment surrounding me. The first thing I want to talk about is the significance of night in our modern day and age. Since the industrial revolution, there has been a very great push in the advancements in our technology with the creations of engines leading to automation. Because of this, living standards have greatly increased all over the world which have let us as human beings more time to rest than work. This may seem like stating the obvious but yes, night is the period where most people sleep, though, this is still a rather significant thing to think about as in this era rest has been greatly influenced by advancements in technology such as social media. Such items used to satiate our desire for joy may cause some to sacrifice time to sleep and potentially risk their own personal health. Heck! Even I at this moment am staying up to right this as this is one of my only free moments while also being the best time to write with experience. I feel because of our great advancements in health, people are also more willing to lose sleep knowing that there are many ways that through medicine that issues can be resolved. This does not even get started with the like of caffeine which provides energy to those lacking it even at the cost of personal health. I feel that all in all, because our technological world has become so advanced, sleep has become rather lacking, contrary to our advancements in technology. This also portrays how we live in more nightlife oriented societies in this moment and how it is like a whole 'nother world that we live in from the day. Personally, I feel though that this has many poor effects on people's healths but as I do it myself, I will try and not be hypocritical.

From a more historical point of view, night has symbolized many things, including links to theology, warfare, and politics. Something in particular that is quite fascinating to me is the significance of the stars. Constellations have come to bring interpretations of omniscient deities such as Hercules the son of Zeus which give us a rich understanding of our roots and origins of culture. Furthermore, this is how we have come to develop a better understanding of the sea as sailors have used stars such as Polaris to help them navigate through the vast ocean. A great link between many cultures in history was the supernova of 1054 also known as the crab supernova. People from Spain, Japan, China, Iraq and even possibilities of some early American civilizations have seen and recorded this event. Because we all share the same night sky, it really makes us realize that we are more interconnected than we seem and that our world is not as large as we make it to be. An extensive use of night combat has been used in the contemporary era due to our major advancements in technology including night vision goggles and infrared cameras. Even when light is not in our favor we are able to take advantage of the situations. Morally, this may seem underhanded as you are attacking someone when they are most vulnerable though this raises questions on the ethics of warfare as a whole. Personally, I think that if we settled more disputes with logic rather than emotions, there would be a lot less blood to be shed in the world though it is already obvious that this is an impossible goal to attain. People will always want an advantage over others as we are selfish in nature. These many uses of the night outside the ideas of sleeping are rather fascinating all in all which represents how we have guided ourselves to where we are today, as a society, culture, and setting in stone our history.

Lastly, I think the night from a more existential perspective is rather cool to perceive in itself. Night as we know it is when the sun can not be seen and therefore a lack of light. This is when we see what is practically all of space. I think this brings this larger scope which we may see ourselves in as what we realize is that the world we live in grovels in comparison to the grand scale of the universe. Intergalactic space which is the areas in between galaxies contain very few molecules and are some of the closest naturally occurring vacuums in our universe with around 10^-6 molecules per cubic centimeter. As our universe is constantly expanding, there is a very nihilistic reality that we will only separate further out as time progresses. However, this grand diversification of the universe will happen in billions of years where our world and short lives will not even live to see. Though scientifically there are very grim realities we must face, what we have come to love as our current night sky is what we will experience and must adapt to. It was only 63 years from when the Wright brothers first set flight in the air until Neil Armstrong quoted the famous line "One small step for man one giant leap for mankind." This is one of the greatest displays of human ingenuity that had happened within the same century that someone could have lived in. I feel that we should be grateful for the time period we live in. Some might say "Too late to explore Earth, too early to explore space," though we are right on time to see the golden age of technological development. It is now where we are able to witness the start of a new era that we control.

In closing, it is without a doubt that I am barely a child looking up at our world with optimistic eyes. The night may be a concept that we may only see from our planet though I feel it represents a whole lot more: our struggles, accomplishments, what we have defined to be our entire existence. This all starts with a little darkness and some time to ponder which allows us to carve our own path in this vast canvas of reality. I hope that you as a reader may take away the importance of every aspect of life and overcome impossibilities you face realizing that it may just start with a little sleep.