Friday 24 November 2000

Pic of the day: Memories of brighter days. Archive photo from my west coast trip, on the farm. This is where the two streams meet and become one. Taken on a bright, sunny day...

The light was good

Last I noticed, I only saw them in scientific magazines. These days, I see them prominently displayed in the shops. Newspapers write about them. What? The incredible winter lights, of course.

Light is a good thing, on this most of us agree. As well we should: Humans are clearly designed to be out and about at daylight, what with our superior eyesight and underdeveloped hearing and smell. Besides, we may be somewhat carnivorous now by virtue of weapons, but we're still rather soft and until recently a prey for the more specialized hunters, such as the big cats. Fear of the dark is natural for us. Or if not fear, at the very least distrust.

So we thrive on daylight, while darkness makes us want to stay put. Well, that's nice enough at equator; but as we approach the polar circle, this tendency has some serious drawbacks. For instance, most employers don't have a hibernation policy yet.

***

Yes, the seasonal depression strikes again. Well, it does not strike me. (Well, I did read in the latest Psychology Today that there is a connection between acne and depression, but I'm not convinced this goes further than both being abundant in the same age group.) But one newspaper speculates that perhaps as much as 1 in 4 Norwegians suffer from SAD, or "winter depression".

Luckily, it has come to light that winter depression can be cured by simple means: Synthetic daylight! Common interior lights are much weaker than daylight, though we don't notice because our eyes adjust so well. The combination of colors is not the same, either. But now you can get some largish discs that shine with an intense white light, similar to daylight (not direct sunshine, but still a lot more than a light bulb). The trick is to get up early in the morning and spend an hour in front of this. You can read a book or whatever, just give it time to soak in. Your body is tricked into believing that the sun has started to rise early, and the winter depression goes away.

Of course, if you have winter depression all year long, then it won't work.

***

I've pondered the metaphysical implications of light and dark. I think personally that it does not go quite as deep as we may believe. If we were a nocturnal species, like an intelligent owl or something, the roles just might have been reversed. (Now that is a fascinating thought: A planet full of high-tech owls worshipping the Dark One!)

To us, light brings safety from danger. It gives us freedom to move about. It lets us sense the world about us, discern reality from illusion. It helps us stay awake and fills us with a feeling of energy and vitality.

But I doubt there is an inherent connection between spiritual goodness and photons. As I said, to another species the dark would give similar advantages, while the light would be filled with danger, pain and confusion. Perhaps as our friends the sentient owls go gently into the final night, they race through a dark tunnel and find to their delight (de-dark?) that there is no light at the end of the tunnel - only darkness forever ...

At least our owly friends would have a fairly cheap cure for the summer blues: Sunshades! So far, there doesn't exist anti-shades, I think. Well, there are infrared goggles, but that's not quite the same. I want something that makes the dreary half-light of November as bright and shiny as the sky in May. Scientists, off to work! What could be more noble than to bring light to humanity?