On the Other Side of the Year

It's at this time of year that you begin noticing a change in the light. In the Northern Hemisphere, the mornings are darkening and twilight comes earlier.

Summer is a "plain" or "plateau" of anticipation: everything is in full bloom, and the leaves won't be changing for another 2 months, the days begin to get perceptibly shorter towards the end of July. But in March, there's an anticipation of Spring, and by the end of May, the anticipation of summer. September is a feeling of heading back down the hill.  

Changing of Light, Sun, and Moon

• 0179: Compares poetry to the moon rather than the sun, as it "reflects light rather than shines directly".
• 0352: States that "Light never ages; it just travels farther".
• 0522: Reflects on the "earthrise" captured during the 1969 moon landing as a compelling moment of perspective.
• 0570: Observes that looking at the sun makes one realize it is the force that "created you".
• 0596: Likens dreams to "stars hidden in the daytime sky".
• 0833: Recommends "controlling darkness and light" rather than favoring one over the other.
• 1162: Mentions the "rejuvenating warmth to reflected light" between the earth and moon.
• 1261: Uses light to describe the limitations of technology, noting that AI is like electricity that is always available but "not necessarily always creating 'light'".
• 1327: Discusses moonlight as a subject primarily suited for abstract representation in painting because it is difficult to photograph.
• 1500: Notes that there is an "entire light year of light that will have traveled since last year".
• 1616: Critiques skyscrapers for blocking the sky, which acts as a "source of light even without the sun being visible".
• 1958: Reflects on human emotional responses to the sky, noting that after long overcast periods, people rejoice in seeing the sun, while space travelers would rejoice in seeing clouds.
• 2435: Reminds that "light can carry information other than light".
• 2724: Describes the solipsistic experience of interplanetary space travel as being in Solitary confinement yet always in "complete sunlight".

Shadows and Illumination

• 0389: Describes metaphors as "artificial meanings placed on real situations to illuminate them," but warns that once illumination is removed, shadows may appear in the wrong places.
• 0527: States that the artist is always "casting shadows on their own work," and audiences are often preoccupied with the shape of those shadows.
• 0644: Notes that the "shape of a shadow can be didactic" because shadows are subjective to the specific nature of their light source.
• 0789: Pushes shadows to the foreground as the "quintessential abstraction".
• 0799: Observes that "when it's partly cloudy it's also partly shadowy" because clouds cast shadows in addition to blocking the sun.
• 0948: Describes metaphors as "lights that cast shadows" that may or may not match the outline of the object they attempt to explain.
• 2782: Asserts that "Shadows are the ultimate in contrasts".

Total Eclipses

• 1402 & 1403: Describe an eclipse as a predictable, empirical event that nonetheless requires a "surrender to serendipity" and creates an experience that is impossible to dismiss.
• 2924 & 2925: Define eclipses as "cosmic set-ups" and prime examples of how humans imbue rare natural occurrences with deep meaning.
• 3084: Uses eclipses as a metaphor for revolutions, noting they are "happening all the time, but you’re not physically there to witness them".