The Universe

During finals, my beautiful friend Jen and I stayed up until six in the morning writing papers. As we walked back to our dorm, we noticed how silent and peaceful the world was. Everything was dark and calm.

Simply still.

It was beautiful. Jen pointed out a major difference between night and day. During the day, even on a clear day, all you'll see upon looking up is earth's atmosphere. Despite its obvious beauty, that is all it is...an atmosphere: "an envelope" (Dictionary definition).

When the sun goes down, things change. Assuming the sky is clear, you are looking into the entire universe, not just our little pocket, our envelope of a world. There is so much more to experience, yet we choose to sleep during the most peaceful and beautiful hours.

I considered this idea for sometime the other night and I realized that it is a powerful metaphor.

Things are really quite safe during the day. We are inside of our busy little (and it truly is little) atmosphere, dealing with life and all of the "problems" that go along with it. Busy, busy, busy. The day is not still. I think that one of the most incredible moments of any given day is just before a tornado touches down (or threatens to do so)...absolutely everything is silent and still. It is the stillness that scares us. The same thing applies to the night.

But why?

We are afraid. Terrified, in fact. I can't blame or judge because I fall into the crowd on this one a lot of times. We are so scared of the things that scare us that we avoid them instead of facing them. Does the night not represent this?

I don't really have an answer or idea that has developed any further, but I thought it was interesting to consider.