Lumos.

Picture Courtesy- Me. 

When I was in the 3^rd grade, I discovered Suzanne Collins by chance in my school library. I guess it was like discovering a song that would soon top the charts, before everyone else. Yes, this was years before the Hunger Games trilogy came to be, when she had authored a series called the Underland Chronicles. And I absolutely loved the series. And yes there is a point to this reminiscence. In the Underland, a world within our world (or below it, to be precise), the word ‘light’ was synonymous with the word ‘life’. And only lately have I realised that for the current optimist in me, it was definitely one of the very first positive reinforcements in life. For who could say it better than Stephen Hawking- "However bad life may seem, where there is life, there is hope." 

It's a simple formula. 

Life = Light. 

Life = Hope. 

Light = Hope.

Ever since we crawled out of that primordial slime, that's been our unifying cry, "More light." Sunlight. Torchlight. Candlelight. Neon, incandescent lights that banish the darkness from our caves to illuminate our roads, the insides of our refrigerators. Big floods for the night games at Soldier's Field. Little tiny flashlights for those books we read under the covers when we're supposed to be asleep. Light is more than watts and footcandles. Light is metaphor. Light is knowledge, light is life, light is light. ~Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider

As children, we were afraid of the dark. It was a very valid fear- the darkness meant the unknown. Oblivion. Time passed and then we grew up. Monsters under our bed became monsters in our heads. Perhaps that is why more times than often- we are afraid of the light. And what could be sadder. We are always on the never-ending pursuit of happiness yet cannot stop finding reasons to lose our way. Hope is everything. Hope is the light that guides us home, to happiness. Hope is being able to see that light despite the despair and darkness. Yet we still fear the uncertain, the unknown, we used to fear the darkness and now, we fear the light. It's hard to say which fear is worse- a child's fear for the dark or the adult's fear for the light. Or perhaps, just the same. Nevertheless, it's always been time to move past those fears yet we don't. Why? 

Several books and fandoms believe in this metaphor, and yet another significant example would be from the Harry Potter series. In the third instalment, Dumbledore had said and I quote, "Happiness could be found in the darkest of times, if only one one remembers to turn on the light." 
A thought iterated and reiterated throughout the series. Take Ron Weasley and the Deluminator as an example- the Deluminator did not just turn off the lights, it was a beacon of hope. The light showed him the way. Like a lighthouse would on a stormy night lost at sea or a lantern on a foggy evening . The main point being, he wasn't afraid to let the light show him the way. I've often wondered why light would symbolise hope- and now it makes perfect sense. For, light is what we wake up to every single day- sunlight and a new beginning. It has been said that with the flight of the morning, through a heart of darkness shall always emerge the light.

As I did some reading up on 'light', I came across a wonderful and poignant message about the same by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, a German religious leader. He took as an example, a painting called the 'Entrance to Enlightenment'. It is the painting of a dark room with an open door. He took this example to explain the metaphorical comparison between the shadows of the room and the shadows of our soul. The door opens to blinding white light. Yet this light illuminates only just the space right in front of the door, and not the whole room, reminding us- that light too has boundaries. Reminding us that with light, come shadows. That despite it's speed, light shall always find darkness awaiting. However, let us not take this to mean that hope leads to failure- It's a matter of perspective, I believe. The light that illuminates only a small area is still guidance enough to lead you out of whichever abyss of darkness you might find yourself in.

If there is any lesson to be learnt from a lifetime on this planet- it would be this. Light shall always trump darkness. It can be seen as a universal truth, if you may. That a single candle is illumination enough to show you the way. Hope. It could be the 'light at the end of the tunnel', a 'driving force' or 'the crystal meth of emotions' which 'hooks you fast and kills you hard'. Hope is a matter of perspective. I like to believe that hope is everything. Lumos > Nox. Where there is life, there is light.

For, The world may be broken but hope is not crazy.