By As he lay dying, the German poet and playwright Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe supposedly had a last request.
More light!
It’s a plea most of us can identify with. It’s too dark. Light some candles. Turn up the dimmer. Give us back some of that daylight we’ve supposedly saved through the years.
Art Marmorstein, local columnist
My Northern State colleague Dave Grettler fights an ongoing battle with darkness. Generally the first one in our department to arrive on campus, he stops by my classroom even before he heads to his office and flips on the lights. He hates to think of me and my students stepping into a dark classroom.
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Dilbert creator Scott Adams likewise seems to detest unnecessary dimness. One of his most annoying characters is Phil, the Prince of Insufficient Light — an appropriate title for the ruler of Heck.
Unfortunately, this is the time of year when it feels like Phil has extended his kingdom into South Dakota. We lose a little more light every day until, by the solstice, we have less than nine hours of daylight — and daylight that comes from a weird, disconcerting angle at that.
My wife watches the calendar. She knows that the month before and the month after the solstice are going to be psychologically hard. The two weeks before and after the solstice are the worst. South Dakota cold she can handle. Too little light? That’s tougher.
Most Dakotans suffer from at least a touch of seasonal affective disorder this time of year, a craving for more warmth, but, even more, a craving for more light. And around the world, even in places that get a lot more winter daylight than we do, people find the extended darkness of winter oppressive and a struggle to get through.
But what is to be done?
“Better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness,” runs the popular phrase. In both the Jewish and Christian tradition, candle-lighting is the weapon of choice in fighting the growing darkness of the days. At Hanukkah, there’s an extra candle for each of what Adam Sandler called the “Eight Crazy Nights.” At Advent, there’s an extra candle for each of the weeks leading up to Christmas, candles representing hope, peace, joy and love.
A handful of candles would seem no match for the Prince of Insufficient Light, let alone the darkness of the days or the great Prince of Darkness.
But lighting even a single candle is a step in the right direction, pointing to a much greater light and the ultimate victory over darkness.
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“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path,” reads Psalm 119.
Second Peter likewise describes the Scripture as a light — and, interestingly, a light that points to an even greater light source. Study of the Scripture leads to life change, what Peter describes as “the day star arising in your heart.”
The Book of Daniel says that those transformed by God’s word will shine like the brightness of the heavens. In the end, they’ll be like the stars that shine forever and ever.
At holiday time, lights go up all over Aberdeen. I find the nativity displays the most encouraging, but secular-themed lights, the Grinches, Santa Clauses, polar bears and nutcrackers are fine, too. One friend decorates his house and yard with a spectacular display of every kind of Christmas-themed inflatable imaginable.
But the greatest encouragement in the dark times of winter is to meet those people who are already shining with the light of the great joy that overcomes all darkness, the people you just know are on the path to becoming, not Hollywood or Broadway stars, but real stars, the kind that shine forever and ever.
Art Marmorstein lives in Aberdeen and is a professor of history at Northern State University. His viewpoints are his own and do not reflect those of the university.
Art Marmorstein
Art Marmorstein lives in Aberdeen and is a professor of history at Northern State University. His viewpoints are his own and do not reflect those of the university.