Getting Comfortable With Darkness

\”Are YOU Ready?\”

What does it mean when we talk about the lights going out? Whether personal hardship or national hardship. When the lights go out, there are all sorts of theories about what’s going to happen. But you know what? I can tell you with 100% certainty what’s going to happen.

It’s going to get dark.

I was observing our campground this weekend, and the one thing I noticed in almost every camp spot, was the amount of light people brought for their tents or campers. Christmas tree lights, hanging lanterns, propane lanterns, weird colored flood lights, you name it, I swear I saw it this weekend.

Maybe I just follow a different line of thinking, but when I camp, I like to see stars, and moonlight and lightening bugs. I like to watch the fire flicker and beckon to moths.

But, our camper neighbors are probably fairly representative of most Americans these days. Browsing online, or e-book reading are easier to do by artificial light. It’s easier to avoid the campground neighbors and the possible awkward conversations if your site is so bright you can’t see beyond it. Ignoring the realities staring us in the face, is easier to do if one avoids the meditative thinking that sitting by a fire can so easily bring on.

I guess what I’m trying to say here is I think it’s likely most Americans are going to have trouble adjusting to the sheer fact of darkness. I purposefully do runs and walks at night, with as little light as I can get away with. I find it fun and a great way to cement knowledge of my local terrain. I’ll do it in unfamiliar territory too, just to practice moving with my sight removed. After awhile my night vision will kick in and I’ll have some sight back, but for the first few minutes I’m reminding my body how to feel its way forward. Light steps, keep balanced and move slowly. I see no sense kicking my toes into every obstacle, I move a touch slower and with more awareness of where I’m placing my feet.

I find this practice serves me well during midnight diaper changes and moonlit harvests. And it’s nice practice for the next time I’m out walking at night; which seems circular, and it is, until that next time is an emergency or a backup plan when something else goes wrong. One of my favorite memories from my tour of Europe was the 3 mile walk at midnight I took across Paris when the train I was on hit the temporary end of line, because that line was under construction and I wasn’t aware of it when I planned my transport that day. Luckily I was young and most of my baggage was already at that hotel, and most of Paris is pretty well lit. But, things like that happen, transportation gets broken, people can let you down, or you could just mistime something in relation to sundown.

Get comfortable with darkness folks, because at it’s base level, THAT’S what the lights going out means. A few days after lights out, candles and flashlights will be in use, but as the batteries die and the candles burn out, everyone is going to have to get really familiar with darkness, really quick. Are YOU ready for that?

-  Calamity Jane