Grüezi @gerzensee, " The night is always darkest just before the...

Grüezi @gerzensee,

" The night is always darkest just before the sun starts to rise. "

I've always been a little discomfited by this saying, often used on Anzac Day etc yet I see now I haven't really thought about it clearly. It's such a profoundly human concept, when one thinks about it even a little (as I'm ashamed to say, I haven't until now). So, I've revised my way of thinking as follows.

My previously mildly irked self might have thought 'Well, no, it's not darkest then. Scientifically, light levels are likely to be darkest at mignight (leaving aside moonlight) because that's when we're furthest from Sol. Also, as one approaches dawn, the rods and cones in one's eyes have arguably best adjusted to conditions of darkness, so things - including the night - wouldn't appear to be so 'dark'. And then there are the precursor periods for the dawn itself i.e. twilight as sailors know. So in purely physical terms, not so dark?'.

My reinvented self now thinks ' No, it's not about the dark, it's about the night. Night is beyond our control - a period of enforced helplessness. Night is the time when we turn inwards in reflection, when we have no distraction from our human condition, especially our fears and concerns & we have to wait for morning so as to be able to move on & get away from them.' And then clearly, the longer the night, the longer the period of tortured introspection, guessing, second-guessing & waiting. All while unable to do anything useful to dispel or deal with those concerns. They then accumulate and are only exacerbated by tiredness and exhaustion, both physical and mental. So, in metaphorical or even allegorical terms, it is always darkest just before the dawn, because that's when that period of night is longest. By definition.

Metaphorical 'corollaries' or implications are looking more compelling too, IMO e.g.:
- the longer the night, the more one is likely to appreciate the dawn;
- one's enemies may try to take advantage of the night, to extend it or act in it for their own benefit; and
- it's best to try to ignore the night, keep one's mind cool & conserve one's energies to spring into life with the dawn (while watching with one eye for those enemies).

Food for thought, I hope.

PS: @Pledge will no doubt consider this post merely a manifestation of 'Stockholm syndrome'. Ha.

Cheers all.