I suppose it is both literally and metaphorically true at the moment. I came home tonight to see my beautiful red bicycle devoid of air. Some tricksters must have targeted my pretty wheels that were parked downstairs while I was at work and liberated their tires of air. A sad sight, indeed, as the bike can nearly not stand up on its own kickstand at this point. In my mind, a pretty harmless prank but one that reflects a bit of my own energy level at the moment. Someone must have also sneaked in when I wasn't paying attention and stolen some of my air too.
I try not to dwell on the darkness, but in tiptoeing around the very obvious reality that there is an absence of light at this time of year in this part of the world only drives me yet further from any illumination or chance of sunny disposition. When the sun does shine for a few hours (2 days so far in December) and I am faced with all the brightness of the sky, I am reminded of the Allegory of the Cave we read in my 12th grade English class with Ms. Bierbaum. I feel a bit like one of the cave dwellers emerging from a world of mere shadows. The honesty of the sky and the sun seem shocking and overwhelming -- one has to squint to look into the blueness of the sky overhead. On these days when the light appears, my urges to run outside and plaster myself somewhere, anywhere in the light feels a bit absurd (I'm quite certain the locals would stare). I have probably been too spoiled by an abundance of this truth of natural beams of light around me in the past. Only now can I appreciate what is missing as I emerge from the shadows to see reality basked in sunlight. If I had to rewrite one of my essays from 12th grade English answering the question What is truth? I would most definitely write that light is truth. (Yes, Ms. Bierbaum, I have finally progressed a little on that particular quest!)
Faced with these truths in the forms of absence of air and light, I understand why I feel flat and a bit lifeless these days. The bears have got it right; the only solution is to hibernate.
1 comment:
Hello Dzen,
Wow, I thought I had is bad with the sun rising at 7 AM and setting at 4PM until I read your post.
I would imagine that if the winter is mostly dark that the summer is mostly light. Hang in there!
Changing the subject, thank you for checking out my blog. The guides I have on-line are sort of rough drafts and will be updated within a month.
Cheers,
Jimbo is Japan
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