Where evil lurks?
Looking about, I found one of those quiz things again. This one was easy enough, and probably easy to 'stack the deck' of, but I do agree with the result - on the first pass, even. There is more than the quiz result behind the cut...
You come from the Night Sky. You're drawn to the
stars and planets, and it's no wonder why, you
came from them.
Where Did Your Soul Originate?
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I'm rather pleased and comfortable with that result. Perhaps more than I am with the concept of soul.
See, the night sky was and is a place of comfort and refuge and hope. The silent beauty of the stars. Knowing the light I was seeing was astonishingly old and from afar somehow helps to make mundane things, well, mundane. During the bright of day was when bad things happened. Problems with people, problems at school, and the like. But night was different. Night was friendly.
I could be outside at night and there was no real fear. At worst there was wildlife. I saw rabbits and deer and such. And the occasional skunk. Once between me and the house door. I just went in later, no big deal. Sure, there were black bears around, but they never bothered me. And if anything was going to be a problem, I had a dog. Not that the dog would fight off anything, but she would bark a warning if anything wasn't just right. That seldom happened, and never seemed to be anything more than rabbits being chased through the woods.
The moon was nice, when not full and washing out the sky. Moonless nights were best. The Milky Way could be easily seen, and stars, and views of the planets and nebulae and such were good. Once I was surprised and saw an odd sort of cone of light come up from the western horizon well after sunset. It took me a moment to realize I was seeing the zodiacal light. Something I'd hoped but not expected to see.
The night wasn't perfect. The odd car going by with blinding headlights, mercury and then sodium vapor lamps. Mosquitoes in the Summer and wind and cold in the Winter. But those could be dealt with. Warm clothes for the Winter, and later nights in the Summer when the bugs went down as it cooled.
What bugged me was the day and its problems. Or the weird mischaracterization of light as good and dark as evil. That was common, but I knew better. I still do. There is nothing quite as restorative a night walk under a starlit but otherwise dark sky. A precious and all too rare thing now. I spent many a night walking up and down the dead-end road for an hour or two just looking at the stars and pondering to myself. My folks often asked if I was cold or something. Not hardly. Oh sure, my skin have physically felt cold, but I was feeling my best after that.
The most peaceful, most hopeful, and best time was with the stars, in the dark. Even a cloudy night wasn't all that bad. How could dark be evil? It was during daylight that evils showed up. Maybe that's part of why I'm not all that religious. If something so very basic as what was good and what was evil and how they were represented was wrong, then how could any of the rest be right? My world was the dark of night, and my world was good.
I don't spend that much time there anymore. People have the strange idea that darkness is wrong somehow, and those who like it are up to no good. Not so. But they light up the night with light they don't use. And walk at night, in town? Why, that's suspicious. And then there is the whole day job thing.
I want my night back. Let everyone keep their crowds and nastiness and evils in the bright sunshiny day. But don't brighten my night. I like my wonderful darkness the way it was, thank you. Someday, or rather somenight, I intend to go back. Back into the wonderful, peaceful, welcoming, and good night.