We have finally emerged through the dark tunnel that was 2024, and we stand in the light of the new year 2025.
We are creatures of the light. Our senses of hearing and smell are good at giving us sensory information of the surrounding world at a distance, but the greatest of our senses is that of sight. By day, under the sun, our ancestors could see for miles around them (depending upon the surrounding terrain). The darkness of night put us to a disadvantage, robbing us of this precious sense. We huddled about the campfires making stories about what might be 'out there' in the darkness. This became so ingrained in the human psyche that, in some ways, we have never gotten over that.
Over thousands of years our ingenuity of invention has brought us from campfires, to candles of both tallow and wax, to oil lamps (vegetable, whale and petroleum), to electric lights and even chemical bioluminescence to source and satisfy our instinctual need for light. Our cities are dazzled by lights which guide our way, advertise our products and provide shelter from the elements. Our homes are made comfortable to walk through and to work late - or just sit back, relax and read a good book.
We have come a long way in claiming part of what that old darkness held from us to our common use.
Dennis Appell
January 22, 2025
