All About Lights

All About Lights

I've never tried to understand the sunrise.
I only know it takes away the dark.
I can't explain Your healing or all the joy I'm feeling.
I only know You've come into my heart.

The light of a million mornings filled my heart.
The sound of a million angels sang my song.
The warmth of a love so tender
Touched my life and suddenly
The light of a million mornings start in me.

--Claire Cloninger and Mark Hayes, "Light of a Million Mornings"

In our world today, there are many types of light.  Let me enumerate some:  There is the neon light; most of us fancy the dancing light; still others are drawn to the spot light; while some can't wait to switch on the Christmas light, and of course, who could miss the ubiquitous fluorescent light? 

Let me share with you some of their characteristics: 

Neon Light. The neon light is what we see most of the time adorning billboards, it is lovely especially if applied with different colors.  It makes the billboard ad more inviting, appealing to the eyes and which more often than not, snatches our attention.  But then, it has one major weakness.  For it to be truly useful, it has to wait for the sunlight to vanish where it roars into life giving the city its pomp and rhythm.  But half the day, it is dead for it is no match to the daytime’s brightness. 

Dancing Light. Almost all of the dance halls are dead without the cadence of the dancing light.  It makes the environment conducive to dancing giving the pretense that a ballroom or dance hall is no hall at all if people just stare at each other’s eyes without the necessary blink of the dancing light. 

Spot Light. The spot light is an all-powerful light which makes you sweat and almost be blinded  should you find yourself blocking its path.  Though powerful it may seem, its strength is confined only in one place at a time; where it gives daytime brightness to one side, it lets the other side  fall into stark darkness. 

Christmas Light. The Christmas light is a seasonal fixture lending the air the aura of cheer and giving.  While it is popular in that one event, it is almost out of place outside the season and is left to lie useless for most of the year. 

Fluorescent Light. The fluorescent light is ever lowly but dependable.  Legend has it that the fluorescent light was invented by a Filipino.  I consider it lowly because of its utter simplicity and total lack of style, it seldom finds its way in the big house of the financially well-endowed.  And when it does, it takes on another form or shape, becoming somewhat obscured as if to say its mere appearance destroys the ambience of the room.  And yet we almost always find one in the shanties of the less privileged where it safely gives light to anyone and anything else in the room. 

We are the light of the world…so often we've heard; but exactly which type? 

Are we like the neon light where we always prefer our world to be dark because we feel powerless and unappreciated in the bright?  That our usefulness begins at dusk when people scramble to the safety of their homes after a day’s work and we then we bug them with all our adornments and superficial colors? 

Are we like the dancing light, where we give the world its rhythm and life but feel inadequate once the music stops or slows down; where we always want everything around us to be upbeat as if it were the only trace of life? 

Are we like the spot light where we leave the rest to grope in the dark, feeling unnoticed while showering specific people with attention in all its lavishness until they sweat in the heat of our praise, invariably moving them to discomfort; where we focus our attention to the minutest detail but leaving the perspective to some other space? 

Or we might be like the Christmas light where we lend ourselves to the spirit of giving and sharing as if to herald the coming of the Savior, but lying asleep and without purpose for the most part of the other seasons as if we were the modern-day Scrooges awaiting the wake-up call of the Christmas spirits? 

Or perhaps we are like the fluorescent light: lowly and utterly simple, where we feel most welcome in the homes of the less fortunate; where most of the time it is the only vestige of modernity and pride that they can surely afford?

You are the light of the world… Neon light, dancing light, spotlight, Christmas light, fluorescent... 

And you, what sort of light are you?

ABOUT THE SHARER:

MR. JOEL R. GABRIEL is a member of the Filii Sancti Dominici Philippinensis

KEYWORDS: OP Filii, Special, Lights