The Chronicles of Daytime and Nighttime
Just two measures of time, trying to get to know one another (Part 1)
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Daytime and nighttime had heard whispers of each other through the universe, and even crossed paths occasionally, but never long enough to have a conversation or truly connect. With nighttime’s aversion to lightness, and daytime’s aversion to darkness, there was seemingly no reason the two should ever meet, at least not in this version of capitalist time driven earthly society. But daytime’s recent therapy sessions encouraged it to move out of its comfort zone and do, what their therapist called, “shadow work” … which scared daytime a bit because for all they knew, shadows and anything that resembled darkness, weren’t even a part of their personality or existence.
‘Everyone has a dark side’ was what daytime’s therapist said, to which daytime responded, ‘Have you met me?’
The truth was, daytime always saw itself as a beacon of light, where the main focus of its identity, was the sun. Even on darker, cloudier days, daytime found itself still imagining the sunny, birds out, wind to a minimum, clouds nowhere to be seen measure of time that was so commonly associated with its existence. Never mind the entire parts of the world that were known for being anything but the sunny, comfortable temperature that daytime so loved to be associated with—places like London, Portland, and Seattle, which saw more rain and gray days than sun for most parts of the year. And how about the Nordic region of the planet, that only saw a few hours of light daily, for a portion of every year? Daytime had a difficult time acknowledging these dualities that were part of its existence. It started going to therapy when climate change began to pick up in the last 50 years, causing it to question everything it knew about its existence. Suddenly, it felt like it was going through puberty all over again—but at least with puberty, there was older age to look forward to, whereas this type of evolution felt never-ending.
Nighttime also had its own fair share of struggles that were only further complicated by forces outside of its control.
For one, it felt constantly misunderstood. It didn’t always identify with the “dark” identity, and found it difficult to be boxed in with such a label that was basically assigned at birth, without consideration for the multitudes it contained within. Nighttime felt quite joyful and lively, and saw its existence as one of exploration and discovery. Anything could happen during nighttime, but most who engaged with nighttime, did so in slumber. This allowed nighttime to be a host for dreams, rest, and quieter conversations.
Duality was something nighttime accepted, and although it felt an aversion to light, it didn’t necessarily identify with exclusively dark either. Nighttime knew that some associated darkness with fear, unknown, and danger. But there was so much more to darkness—without it, there would be no light.
The two experiences overlapped twice a year in some parts of the world with something called ‘daylight savings’ which for all they knew, was made up to try and use lightness and darkness as a method of driving humans mad. It drove nighttime and daytime mad, too, because they never wanted to think about the measure of their worth in accordance with something as trivial as time—something they both knew to be fake despite the word’s inclusion in their names.
The sun was actually the one to suggest that daytime and nighttime meet. At first, daytime thought the sun was crazy for the suggestion.
‘Who’s going to babysit? And what if someone notices that I’m gone?’ daytime asked.
‘Don’t worry about it. I know exactly what to do and I’ve been watching you do this for such a long time. Plus with all the climate change, nobody knows their days from nights anymore,’ the sun said matter of factly, as if it had seen this all before.
‘What if nighttime hates me?’ daytime asked, frowning.
‘How could they? You never know, maybe it’s feeling blue and needs a little of your light,’ the sun said.
The moon had a similar conversation with nighttime, noticing how nighttime had recently fallen into a depression.
‘You’ve been in your lil bubble for too long, bud. It’s time to shake things up. Me and the stars, we can’t be your only friends anymore,’ the moon said.
‘You know I like to keep my circle small,’ nighttime replied.
‘I know you do, but as your best friend, I’m just being honest. You never go out anymore, you’re always in your pajamas, I can’t remember the last time I saw you get all dolled up,’ the moon said.
Defeated, inspired, excited, and nervous, the two agreed to meet up. But they didn’t know how to get in touch, so daytime asked the sun to reach out to the moon and set something up. The sun obliged, and met with the moon in the wee hours of the morning.
‘Hello old friend,’ the sun said.
‘Hello sweet sun,’ the moon said.
As if reading each other’s minds, the meeting was set for the following Friday, on Mercury, which felt appropriate given the planet’s associations with communication, adaptability, and thinking patterns.
🌞 Stay tuned for part 2 🌚
will not touch this dial, will wait for you to be right back
Oh I'm staying tuned alright!! Eager for the continuation