Alaska Light, and Lack Of [10minutetuesday]

The Alaska darkness is a life-shaping thing. It comes with fall, and finds a heavy place by the winter solstice, right before Christmas. At that point, Prudhoe Bay has not seen the sun above horizon for four weeks. Here in North Pole even the shortest day sees the sun for about three hours. But it is low on the horizon and never rises above about 8 degrees. Low.

By contrast the summer sun is high and almost never goes away. In early May I can walk outside at 1 AM and something like dim twilight will greet me. By the summer solstice, June 21st, the sun dips below the horizon for only about three hours. It never seems dark and we will not see true darkness again until mid-August.

So it is more true to say we are shaped by the light or lack of. Winter brings slowness, welcomed after the long summer days. And summer brings activity that never stops, also welcome after being shut in for so long by snow and cold and dark.

Wisdom would call us to welcome the shaping of nature's ways, rather than chafe.

Low sun on a winter day in AK.