“He made the moon for the seasons, the sun knows the place of its setting.”

The midrashic sages identified a critical component lacking in a faith authoritatively governed by the boundaried Talmud, something beyond the dimensions of fact and written word. Emotion driven storytelling. When the former becomes unpalatable or unacceptable to the public, the latter steps in to weave a new etiological myth into existence.

Unsettled by the lack of lore regarding the difference in illuminance between the sun and moon, the mystics of old crafted a narrative bringing the subtext of their creation story to life. As goes the tradition, on the fourth day God creates the sun and the moon, one to bring light to day the other to night. These two bodies of light were made to be equal luminaries for each of their respective domains. All was good.. however the moon did not understand its purpose. To the moon, what was the difference between day and night? She shined just as bright as the sun, so why two? After much personal deliberation, the moon finally brings her concerns to her creator and a conversation ensures. The moon reflects on her situation and finally poses the question that would definitely alter her relationship with the sun: if there was only a single shining crown, how would they share it? Entertained by the moon’s proposition, God decided to adjust course and shrank the pale lady down to a percentile of her previous size. With a smirk on his face, he exclaimed, “Let your desires be met!”. The moon, rightfully shocked by the turn of events, ran off into the dark of the night. After some time passes, the sun notices the moon has failed to meet them during their regular dawn and dusk cycles. Worried, he made his way to the throne of his creator and learned that his pale partner lost her light and went missing in the night sky. Seeing the sadness in his creation’s his eyes, God gave the sun a chance to make things right again; to potentially restore the moon to her former glory and become his illusionary equal once more. While dominion of the night remains with the moon, the sun was granted full permission to search for her by shining his own search light. He was instructed she left for the west and has ever since been on the hunt. As legends go, the moon has become aware of the sun’s searching, and leaves pieces of her pale veil behind to let the sun know when his light is shining in the right direction to find her.

There is no morning without evening, light without dark, winter without summer. One might prefer morning sunrises to evening sunsets, or a snow blanketed environment to a dry and scalding one, but neither is objectively the better. Beauty is what happens at the intersection of warm light with chilled darkness. Whenever there is harmony and symmetry, we always arrive at this conjunction. The narratives we tell ourselves to explain the circumstances of our being are essential to navigating this world, and that power shall always remain our own. These tales, with all of their varying assumptions and conclusions, are conduits and vehicles that bring the narratives we want to embody to their natural destinations. Instead of the night overcoming day and day outshining night, we can envision dusk and dawn as intermingling moments when the moon and the sun embrace to say hi. One shouldn’t strive to eradicate the dark (or light). Instead strive to play with them as tools, mix them together, create moments that can be considered art. And plus, if you were to dismiss all of your counterparts, who is left to dance with :)

“He made the moon for the seasons, the sun knows the place of its setting.”

The midrashic sages identified a critical component lacking in a faith authoritatively governed by the boundaried Talmud, something beyond the dimensions of fact and written word. Emotion driven storytelling. When the former becomes unpalatable or unacceptable to the public, the latter steps in to weave a new etiological myth into existence.

Unsettled by the lack of lore regarding the difference in illuminance between the sun and moon, the mystics of old crafted a narrative bringing the subtext of their creation story to life. As goes the tradition, on the fourth day God creates the sun and the moon, one to bring light to day the other to night. These two bodies of light were made to be equal luminaries for each of their respective domains. All was good.. however the moon did not understand its purpose. To the moon, what was the difference between day and night? She shined just as bright as the sun, so why two? After much personal deliberation, the moon finally brings her concerns to her creator and a conversation ensures. The moon reflects on her situation and finally poses the question that would definitely alter her relationship with the sun: if there was only a single shining crown, how would they share it? Entertained by the moon’s proposition, God decided to adjust course and shrank the pale lady down to a percentile of her previous size. With a smirk on his face, he exclaimed, “Let your desires be met!”. The moon, rightfully shocked by the turn of events, ran off into the dark of the night. After some time passes, the sun notices the moon has failed to meet them during their regular dawn and dusk cycles. Worried, he made his way to the throne of his creator and learned that his pale partner lost her light and went missing in the night sky. Seeing the sadness in his creation’s his eyes, God gave the sun a chance to make things right again; to potentially restore the moon to her former glory and become his illusionary equal once more. While dominion of the night remains with the moon, the sun was granted full permission to search for her by shining his own search light. He was instructed she left for the west and has ever since been on the hunt. As legends go, the moon has become aware of the sun’s searching, and leaves pieces of her pale veil behind to let the sun know when his light is shining in the right direction to find her.

There is no morning without evening, light without dark, winter without summer. One might prefer morning sunrises to evening sunsets, or a snow blanketed environment to a dry and scalding one, but neither is objectively the better. Beauty is what happens at the intersection of warm light with chilled darkness. Whenever there is harmony and symmetry, we always arrive at this conjunction. The narratives we tell ourselves to explain the circumstances of our being are essential to navigating this world, and that power shall always remain our own. These tales, with all of their varying assumptions and conclusions, are conduits and vehicles that bring the narratives we want to embody to their natural destinations. Instead of the night overcoming day and day outshining night, we can envision dusk and dawn as intermingling moments when the moon and the sun embrace to say hi. One shouldn’t strive to eradicate the dark (or light). Instead strive to play with them as tools, mix them together, create moments that can be considered art. And plus, if you were to dismiss all of your counterparts, who is left to dance with :)