Day and Night Vision

More about rods and cones, night and day vision, from a different angle than last week’s column. Night vision is far different than day vision, how we see at night than during the day. Since we respond to things as they appear to us rather than as they are in themselves, appearance is ninth tenths of reality for us. That is what “spin-doctoring” is all about. What we see and what we believe are very closely allied.

Things can appear very different in the middle of the night than in the middle of the day. And I am not just talking about visual perception, or the difference between the rods and cones in the retina of the eye. I am especially addressing how we see our lives and situations.

Someone recently told me something I simply had to write down. The quote: “Sometimes I think crazy in the night. The problem is, it does not seem to me that I am thinking crazy in the night, in the night.” In other words, the thought patterns of this person were so different during the night, that the capacity to judge their strangeness was absent until the dawning of the day.

There are times when we just have to get through the night until our day perspective returns, when we can more accurately assess where our night vision was wrong or partial or inadequate. During the night, inner demons of the “what if” and the “could be” variety can readily harass us, even mercilessly. During the night it is difficult to see the whole picture, and to find the light-bearing positive possibilities for resolving the harshest realties we know we will have to face.

I remember when I first began serious writing five decades ago. At the time I was a night owl. I enjoyed writing at night, while the world slept. The problem was, time and again when I would read what I had written the previous night in the morning’s light, it was not nearly as good as I thought it had been during the night.

Over time I finally realized that my best writing is in the morning. First of all, that is when my perspective is the clearest; secondly, that is also when I have more energy and ability to discern and concentrate.

After thanking this person for the quote, I told them two realizations I had about writing. First, I said that I was well aware of the nature of wrestling with thoughts, doubts and fears during the night. I termed such plaguing patterns, “nocturnal beasties.” Secondly, I said that it is best if you can avoid or quickly cease struggling with these inner powers of personal darkness.

I indicated that the best way to do this is through the power of faith. You need to lean into faith in the dawning thought-patterns and perspectives the day will invariably present, faith that the day will bring with it positive possibilities, insights and actions plans that are unavailable to you during the night. Add some hope and you have a winning combination.

The thing is, you can look doubt right in the face and say, “I do not have to believe in you, in your dire predictions. I can choose to believe that a bright day will soon dawn, chasing you away as surely as darkness flees from light.” Then you can go back to sleep in expectant hope for the coming comforts of day. Put your trust not in night but in day vision.