Tomorrow, December21, is the winter solstice, the shortest, darkest day of the year. In ancient times, people built fires to drive away the darkness. Religious holidays, with Christmas tree lights and candles on Chanukah menorahs, bring us light in these dark days. We remember the Star of Bethlehem that shone in the night sky.
2020 has been the darkest year most of have lived through--fears of the pandemic, a chaotic election, protests on the streets, lost jobs, food insecurity (which seems to be the current euphemism for hunger), curtailed or canceled visits with family and friends. In an article posted on CNN poet Jay Parini speaks of all these events and quotes from "Snowbound: A Winter Idyll" by John Greenleaf Whittier:
The snow that brief December day
Rose cheerless over hills of gray
And, darkly circled, gave at noon,
A sadder light than waning moon.
Slow tracing down the thickening sky
In mute and ominous prophecy.
A portent seeming less than threat,
It sank from sight before it set.
But the snowbound family spent the dark day gathered together.
Shut in from all the world without
We sat the clean-winged hearth about.
They passed the time in sharing memories and telling stories. Parini points out that today Zoom and Facetime are our hearths. He notes that we, too, can trade stories, relive memories and even share our fantasies about what we're going to do when the pandemic is over.
And he adds a closing note of hope: Vaccines are coming. Eventually life will return to normal. Or a new normal. Even on the darkest day we can look forward to light .He quotes poet Theodor Roethke who wrote,"In a dark time, the eye begins to see."
Another article I read quotes lines from the carol "Oh, Holy Night:"
A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices
For yonder wakes a new and glorious morn.
Even in this "winter of our discontent" we can glimpse light ahead. We just have to wait.
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