Tomorrow at 5:02 am is the Winter Solstice.
I’ve been writing Winter Solstice diaries for the past few years,* each time noting the lights of hope emerging through the darkness of this administration. This year nature, aided by human folly, cynicism, and malice, added a deadly layer to the gloom. And yet, on Solstice Eve 2020, there is great hope in the face of these political and natural plagues.
The great irony of winter is that the moment darkness is greatest is also the moment light is about to return. Each year the winter solstice comes with the promise that the next day will be brighter.
How we survive winter. NY Times today.
Despite the present dark lunacy and wild threats, we know in just one month, compassion and rationality will again enlighten this country. And in just another few months, the tides of death and grief will gradually recede through the triumph of science and leadership.
Two years ago I wrote:
I can understand how our early ancestors, watching the daylight hours shrink, feared darkness would overtake light completely. But then, as the days inched longer, they ecstatically greeted the resurgence of light.
I first appreciated the Winter Solstice in the months after 9/11, when fear and uncertainty gripped us while temperatures fell, and the light of hope was hard to sustain as each day’s sunlight decreased. As December slowly progressed, I yearned for the Solstice, hoping like the ancients,for fear to subside as the days finally grew longer.
And it did. There was a turning point at the end of 2001. Not based on any military victory or other event, but perhaps a lightening of spirit accompanying the natural reversal of darkness.
Our reasons for hope this year shine brightly, but they are not miracles. They are the product of hard work — by scientists for the vaccine, but also by us — our donations, canvassing, phone-banking, postcards -— for the Presidential election. Let’s bring in more light in Georgia in the weeks after Solstice.
*
2017 Solstice Diary
2018 Solstice Diary
2019 Solstice Diary