Sol Vita
Dec 10, 08:28 PM
“Light is life” - Forgotten
I met a man on my flight to Canada, a man who’s name I forget. During our four hour stopover in LA we talked as most strangers from vastly different backgrounds, in an unfamiliar setting would; we talked about why we were there.
Amongst his stories of the events that had brought him to LA he told how he had spent some time down in Antarctica. Another dream of mine, one perhaps more obtainable than a trip to space. He even spent a winter down there, a time where for a period the sun never shines over the horizon. With great enthusiasm he explained that “light is life”, that the return of the sun not only brought the native life out, but that it lifted the depression that fell over the crew during the darkness.
My thoughts turn to this conversation as I am yet to adjust the Canadian winter. In Perth, winter days were short, but so was the winter. A fine sunny 25 degree day in June is not unusual. Here, the rain comes down, the temperature stays down and the daylight runs low. I never really thought about it until now, but 18 degrees closer to the poles is a significant change.
As a race we take the sun’s light for granted, it always has been and always will be (for each of us alive today). Without it we would never have existed nor would we be able to survive should it disappear. It truly is the life giver of our planet and perhaps of our solar-system (I personally hold hope that some form of life will be found on Mars or a moon of the giant gaseous neighbours of ours). No wonder many societies worshipped the sun as a god. I can respect those people, for their focus while misguided, was not misplaced.
So, as is most often the case, it is only now in this northern sun-starved winter that I have come to appreciate my love for it. Thus as the darkest of all days rapidly approaches, I’ll find solace in the fact that the earth will spin, the shadows will recede and the light will return.
Such is life.
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