Car Headlights: A Light Too Bright

Maybe you've seen them. Those headlights that shine so bright they could illuminate the very fabric of the universe itself. Like an invasion of alien searchlights, they sear through the night. It was a simpler time when headlights were mere candles, beacons that softened the blackness of night with an almost apologetic glow. Now, on any dark highway or sleepy town street, we are blinded by the harsh, unblinking stare of modern car headlights.

The moment they approach from behind, your rearview mirror flickers into a brilliant spotlight, burning your eyes in a ghostly mask of white light. The glare from newer headlights, those piercing LED and high-intensity discharge lights, leave you with little choice but to squint or shield your eyes, an involuntary act of self-preservation.

What happened to the gentle amber hue of a headlamp, a signal of a world in motion but not overwhelmed by it? Back when headlights had a warmth to them, you could navigate the roads with some sense of serenity. But today, it’s as though we’ve forgotten what it means to coexist with darkness. In our rush to conquer the night, we’ve made it a battlefield, and light has become the weapon.

To me, these new lights are a misplaced pursuit of perfection, as if brighter is always better. But they don’t invite us to explore the night, they demand we look away. It’s an elimination of the very thing that makes nighttime so mysterious, so interesting. Where once the night sky held the promise of stories unfolding in its shadows, we now find only an oppressive glare, a fog of light that strips the night of its subtlety and grace.

We can no longer slip away into the soft obscurity of evening. We are surrounded by a daylight that never ends, a constant, scorching noon. Our cities, highways, and streets gleam as though they are trapped in perpetual daylight, and our eyes, tired and overwhelmed, pay the price.

Of course, these brighter lights aren’t without their benefits. On a winding rural road or a shadowed highway, their sharp beams can reveal hazards, an unseen curve, a stray animal, or an unexpected obstacle long before traditional lights ever could. They’ve become sentinels of safety, cutting through the night to protect us from what we cannot see. In this sense, they have saved lives, guiding us with a clarity that the dim amber glow of older headlights could never achieve. Yet, in their pursuit of perfect illumination, they have also cast aside something essential, the quiet beauty of the night itself. Sometimes, we need the night, not to disappear into, but to live within.