SUN WORSHIP: A Conversation Beneath an Indifferent Star

IMAGE: An image of cacti with spines raised like antennae, crowned in a luminous apex 
       that seemed to drink directly from the sunlight.

Yahui: (gesturing toward the image of radiant cacti, whose spines trembled with photosynthetic fervor) 
       Tell me something, Reed: are you a sun worshipper in the ancient sense? Or are you 
       merely another creature stumbling across this globe, oblivious to how profoundly 
       indebted we are to the burning nuclear furnace 150 kilometers from us? Because 
       everything from the thoughts firing in our neurons to the cotton fibers in 
       our shirts, all of it is just condensed starlight, borrowed energy from the sun.

Reed:  (becoming rigid as his voice dropped into a metallic monotone, each syllable 
       calibrated as if a cyborg) That inquiry contains multiple semantic pathways with 
       divergent implications. Pathway Alpha: theological sun worship as practiced by historical 
       civilizations—Helios, Ra, Inti. Pathway Beta: a metaphorical appreciation for solar 
       dependency within contemporary ecological frameworks.  Pathway Gamma: literal 
       phototropic responses. Please clarify which semantic pathway you prefer.
       (A beat of silence passed as a small lizard scuttled across sun-baked stone.)

Yahui: (squinting at him, half-amused, half-exasperated) What are you doing?

Reed:  (his mechanical façade flickered and the a grin broke - warm and entirely human) 
       Sorry—couldn't help myself. But yes, undeniably, I worship the sun. Though perhaps 
       not in the way those cacti do, with their elegant biological certainty. My devotion
       is more... recreational. More compromised by self-awareness. Given sufficient 
       suntan oil—and assuming no law enforcement objections— I can almost convince myself 
       that enlightenment arrives through ultraviolet exposure. Shall we worship the sun 
       together? Consciously, absurdly, with full knowledge of our ridiculous position as 
       evolved apes paying homage to a ball of plasma that doesn't know we exist and 
       wouldn't care if we did?


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from Desert Chants: Hearing the Voice of the Wilderness  
SHORT SUMMARY: A playful yet reflective dialogue explores humanity’s ancient reverence for 
     the sun, balancing irony and awareness of the enduring mystery of embodied experience.
LONG SUMMARY: Two friends contemplate humanity's paradoxical relationship with the sun—
      simultaneously dependent and detached, scientifically informed yet spiritually adrift—
      while observing cacti that worship through pure, unconscious existence.
KEYWORDS:  cacti & luminonsity, sun worship, desert art, cactus symbolism, pseudo-dialogues, 
           luminosity in art, metaphysical humor, nature connection, solar energy impressions

Author: T Newfields [Nitta Hirou / Huáng Yuèwǔ] (b. 1955 - ?)
Begun:  2003 in Nagoya, Japan  ✶ Finished: 2026 in Shizuoka, Japan
Creative Commons License: Attribution. {{CC-BY-4.0}} Granted

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