Saturday, December 22, 2012

More Light

It's December 22, 2012, the day with the greatest amount of darkness in the northern hemisphere. At latitudes above the article circle, the sun never rises. After this date, the days began to get longer in the northern hemisphere until the summer solstice in June. So it's a day to celebrate the returning of more sunlight.The darkness will not last forever:
Goethe’s final words: more light.

Ever since we crawled out of that primordial slime, that’s been our unifying cry: more light.

Sunlight, torchlight, candlelight, neon, incandescent, light to banish the darkness from our caves, to illuminate our roads, the insides of our refrigerators. Big floods for the night games at Soldier’s Field, little tiny flashlights for those books we read under the covers when we’re supposed to be asleep, light is a metaphor.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet. Rage, rage against the dying of the light! Lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom, lead thou me on. The night is dark and I am far from home, lead thou me on. Arise, shine, for thy light has come. Light is knowledge, light is life, light is light.
The above is a transcript from this video clip.  It's a scene from the annual winter solstice celebration in a fictional town in Alaska. May there be more light in your life in 2013.

No comments:

Post a Comment