Lights Out (2024)

The irony is that we fear the dark. Evolution hardwired us to associate night with predators and the unknown. But in our crusade to banish every shadow, we have lost something essential: the velvet silence of a moonlit room, the ability to see the Milky Way’s dusty arc, and the deep, restorative rest that only absolute darkness can provide.

Consider the turtle hatchlings on Florida’s beaches. For millennia, they found the ocean by following the horizon’s natural light. Today, sprawling condos and streetlamps send them crawling inland toward highways, away from the sea. For them, lights out is a matter of life and death. The same is true for migrating birds, which circle illuminated skyscrapers until they collapse from exhaustion, or for humans, whose melatonin production—and thus cancer-fighting ability—is disrupted by nocturnal light pollution. Lights Out

Yet, perhaps we need more "lights out" moments. The irony is that we fear the dark

So tonight, try it. Flip the switch. Let the dark in. You might just find that the world doesn’t disappear when the lights go out. It simply shows you its other, softer face. Consider the turtle hatchlings on Florida’s beaches