Saturday 5 June 2010

Nocturnal disturbances

Darkness falls across the land. The midnight hour is close at hand...

Alright, perhaps I've heard Thriller too many times, or read too many vampire novels. But I truly enjoy the night time. The quiet streets, the darkness draped like velvet across the landscape, the full moon a single watchful eye, the hushed movements of nocturnal animals... Night is a magical place.

It is therefore sad to notice that in a lot of places, this magical scene is disturbed. Bright artificial lights, noisy cars and loud music crash through the fragile darkness. Soon 'night' will be, for many people, just another time of day; no different from it's suntouched counterpart.

Will this be a bad thing, you ask? I believe it will, yes.

Even besides the fact that many animals that live at night will flee or die, and that people need some time and place to rest, the thing I consider to be worst, is the loss of magic, of mystery.

There is not enough magic in the world as it is.

Night is the most magical moment of any day. The expressions "things that go bump in the night" and "witching hour" are testimony that many mystique creatures awake and events happen between dusk and dawn. Full moon attracts werewolves, while vampires generally only come out when the sun can't find them. The darkness is equated with secrecy and danger.

Even if the danger are only creations of the mind, there is magic in the time of night. Reason, blessed though it is, rids the world of too many miracles already.

Let this dark mystery survive the age of reason and light.

Before time, before the light, there was darkness... and thus will it end.

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