One Ray of Light

“You only need one ray of light to chase all the shadows away,” she said to him once, when he asked her why she had to be so upbeat the whole time.   – from A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

 

American Night

One morning as I was taking a 5:15 AM walk with my dog Loretta, we passed a maple tree that cast leafy shadows on the sidewalk. These shadows are caused by a street light shining behind the tree. Every time I pass this spot I think of the old black and white movies that portrayed night scenes but were obviously filmed during the day.

Day for night, also known as nuit américaine (“American night”), is the name of a technique to simulate a night scene. Mainly intended to avoid costly (and technically challenging) night filming, outside scenes can instead be shot during the day, with special blue filters and under-exposed film to create the illusion of darkness or moonlight.

I found it so very apropos when I learned that the term for this refers to “American Night”. In America we do love to call day night and night day. The things we once held dear and right and good are now often looked at as wrong, small minded or phobic. And the things we once knew to be immoral and offensive are now acceptable and lauded. Las Vegas brightly lights the desert skyline as it touts “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”. But the lights of Vegas are like those of a carnival. When the garish, blinking neon lights are off, the rubbish, rust and grime are revealed. The genuine light lets us see the truth. So it is with our heart.

Isaiah 5:20- 21 Woe to them that call evil good and good evil; that put darkness for light and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to them that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight!

The pictures below were actually taken in the daytime, but I edited them to look like night; the sun to look like the moon.

This last one IS the moon