Editor's Note
Sadly, Bright Times Ahead

_____ We have passed the solstice and the sunlight grows longer each day. Are you celebrating? I know how much people hate the night and the darkness. They moan when the sun sets at five p.m. Even when the nights are short, they still battle against the blackness, burning artificial light unnecessarily. Are not the stars enough? Of course not. The night must be poisoned. The darkness must be cast aside, beaten back. The sky must be turned to an unhealthy glowing haze.
_____Of course streetlights and the like are necessary for sight and to deter crime, but people go too far. Tiny electric lanterns line the walkways to doors and porch lights are left on until dawn. Homes become fortresses fending off the night. The beauty of gazing forth into a dark wood or over a black field is spoiled by neighbors afraid of abandoning the day. Even the sky is destroyed. In the goal to pollute everything, the glory of three thousand pinpricks of light is washed away by a static haze. Planets come and go. Meteors crash into the atmosphere. Whole galaxies hang in a human eye. But no one notices when they are too busy trying to light enough incandescent bulbs to recreate the sun.
_____When people cast light for the sake of it, they do not realize how beautiful it can be when highlighted by darkness. A room flooded with light contains so much as to make it unnoticeable. The forest distracts attention from the glory of individual trees. Submerged in ebony, however, the light itself and not what it reveals comes to the forefront. Rays leak out of cracks and run across walls and ceilings like liquid. The red glow of a lava lamp pulsates among nothing. Christmas light will-o-the-wisps float in the ink. It is so much more magical than the dull day-appearance of our edifices for darkness is the ally of imagination. The human nervous system is so skilled at locating patterns that it finds them when they do not exist and continuously fills in the unknown with its own creations. Thus is the wellspring of creativity. Illumination leaves nothing to be guess at, but veiled in pitch, the smallest of spaces becomes infinite. Isolated sources of light become islands of sanity amidst the terrors the mind dreams up, but sinking into that fear is positive. It is far better to confront the unknown than rest in the comfort of familiarity.
_____From Lord of the Rings to Lord of the Flies, darkness is always the harbinger of evil and atrocity. Why? Since people are afraid of the unknown, does that mean the absence of light is the tool of the devil? Both the works just mentioned take heavy influence from Christianity, and such metaphors recall an unfortunate history of preaching ignorance and punishing the pursuit of knowledge. “Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor darkness,” says Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:5, so hide in the sun and tremble before the truth that lies hidden just beyond reach where photons do not dance the duality.
_____But it is Lucifer that is the “light-bearer” and spiritual faith is trust in the existence of the unknowable, so therefore religion is steeped in darkness. Why oh why then do our story-tellers insist on using darkness as a synonym for evil, pain, or any other undesirable idea? Or maybe Tolkein and Golding were just sun worshipping Mithraists and I have it all wrong.
_____Darkness is not evil. Those who believe so are only giving into their instinctual fears of the unknown. I celebrate the darkness. Why become despondent when light is enhanced? Photons run like water and scatter like fissures. Pattern recognition finds the beauty of galaxies in bedrooms. Darkness adds multitudes to an empty corner. It has the power to enshroud whole landscapes in mystery.
_____People will still burn their light bulbs though and complain when the sun sets early. They ignore the beauty all around them, choosing instead to embrace mediocrity and despise the mere rotation and tilt of the Earth.

John Zaharick