DARK OF NIGHT
August 21, 2015
Birmingham
Birmingham
The inky, cloud-covered blackness of the night throws an arm over my shoulder and leads me into its world...a blind invitee being gently steered along. Instead of fitting easily into the scene, all my senses spring to life pushing against night's hand covering my eyes. Deprived of sight, I helplessly struggle to name...thus claim the world around me. To once again have the safety of feeling I'm the center of it all. In daylight my realm of authority seems to expand... this larger footprint encourages the world to shrink to a manageable degree. But, oh, in this dark, this non-'real' world...all labels abandoned with the light...I'm reduced to the bare bones of being, to seeing nothing outside of me. This elemental, ineffectual me is tiny compared to the great unknown that surrounds. I need to see, to gain control as usual …by hanging labels over people and things like Christmas ornaments. These labels come packaged with plenty of directions...they have no sell by date...they take no thought to use...and the feeling of control is built in. BUT, can I grow if I tag my world with labels or fear the 'night world' feeling of a lack thereof? With these labels and the judgments they support have I just built a box, decorated it with safe assumptions and sit snugly in the light? Out of the darkness a haunting question comes to me….. Is there ever change and growth while the need for labels persists?
