You’ve never seen a beautiful sunset. You’ve seen something else. Or at least that’s the case here in southern California. Maybe there are beautiful sunsets elsewhere, but not in southern California. Southern California is the home of many things: Hollywood, In-N-Out Burger, the Lakers, airports, Michael Jackson, etc. It is not the home of beautiful sunsets.
Unless you’re standing next to a freshly burned down forest or a newly exploded volcano you shouldn’t see red in the sky. A red sky results from aerosols in the air. Aerosols dissipate light or something like that. They make the sky red. Aerosols occur naturally from forest fires and volcanic eruptions. Scientists say, though, that it would take one hell of an eruption or forest fire to make the sky as red as it gets. So where else could these aerosols be coming from? That’s right, you already know. I don’t have to tell you but I will. You might not even want me to tell you, but I’m about to. “Look at this green peace hippy crying about unnatural sunsets” you’re probably thinking. Well I am. Not a green peace hippy but I am crying about sunsets. I’m crying about how it’s no longer beautiful to see a beautiful sunset. I grew up watching the sky on fire. Watching it bleed and burn. I used to like it.
So what is it you’re seeing when your gullible mind gazes upon what you think is a beautiful sunset? When Mom looks out the window and says, “Look Shane, God has blessed us with a beautiful sunset” she’s lying. Yep Mom, you’re a liar. Filthy like the sunset. I guess it’s not so much of a lie. You could argue that God gave us the power to pollute but that’s kind of a dick move on God’s part. Would be a dick move on yours as well to argue such a thing. Especially when you consider that our pollution will, one day, prevent us from seeing the sun at all. God wouldn’t want that. We throw aerosols into the sky once and notice a positive effect. We look up and marvel at the colors that shouldn’t be there. Patting ourselves on the back for giving the sun the tools it needs to paint a masterpiece in the sky. Unknowing, or some knowing, that, eventually, like I said before, we will no longer even be able to see the fucking sun.
Like I was saying and like you have now accepted, you’ve never seen a beautiful sunset. If that’s something you’d like to do, there’s a couple things you can try. You can burn down a forest but that’s no way to be sure. Even if you aren’t surrounded by smoke stack industry, scientists tell us pollution travels. How far it travels I’m not sure. Even if you’re living outside of a major center of pollution you’ve probably never seen a beautiful sunset. Breathe in that fresh country air! Besides, setting a forest on fire isn’t really a natural occurrence. You’re still just some punk-ass human forcing aerosols into the air.
I think the surest way to do it is to form an army. An army standing in the name of natural sunsets. One inspired by the need to know the sunset is a result of natural processes and therefore beautiful. We would gather our weapons, our torches, our spears. With a great bellow our faces lurch forward. Faces and faces. No bodies just faces. Glowing red with our aerosol sticks we rise up for the sun down. Burn them to the ground. Look up! Look up!
The sky is red.