NIGHT VISION

I know you are probably asking what on earth does this even need to be discussed. And you would be right I suppose if I was talking just about seeing at night.

However, that would be too easy. I've been forced lately to spend time with this one neighbor. He's only lived on my block for a few months, having moved here from a larger city. From as best as I can tell he just got tired of the faster pace of life in the big city so he wanted some place quiet.

Plus, he works as a professor, I think of either sociology or philosophy. He's on this sabbatical and working on a book dealing with things like the purpose of life. I don't imagine that is a lot different than the meaning of life, but in his case it means he spends a lot of time pondering things in general. And because of a variety of reasons, I've been around him a lot and had to listen to some of those ponderings during our conversation.

So because of him, I'm having this moment of metaphysical impulse and a need to see metaphors in all kinds of aspect of life. No biggie, except it isn't my favorite thing if it doesn't translate into a way to scam money, it doesn't thrill me.

In any case, this whole issue of night vision to me because of that context makes it about seeing into the darkness of the soul. Yuck, that sounds too religious for me, but what the heck am I suppose to do? He's got me talking like that.

Anyway, this darkness thing is about seeing in others what they try to keep hidden. Is this a good thing? Don't ask him. Because if you do he'll spend an hour using all kinds of big words and in the end you still won't know the answer.

Basically, I'm not a big fan of looking that hard into those dark places. It is too depressing. I do like lying about it. That way you can make some jerk look like a hero or at least a decent person.

And as long as they don't drag me into the dark areas, I'm happy. I do have plenty of shadows myself. Which is why since I spend enough time there I know I see into those places fairly well.

About the only upside to all of this is when you have spent enough time looking at the dark spots then you know everyone has them. And as long as they don't bore me by trying to pretend they are sunshine through and through, I'm happy.

So just pass the shades we are all going to put on so we can make the night part of our lives look the same as the bright spots. After a while it just seems all the same in a good way.

If not, well there are ways around that too. You just have to learn to enjoy when you have to know somebody else is looking at your shadows that you thought you had manage to hide better. Just smile and at least they will think you are having a good time in the process.