Dawn To Dusk...Dusk To Dawn

One thing that can never be changed is the amount of time we have in a day. Our 24 hours are divided into different parts of the day and depending the amount of sunlight that shines on us.

On our sunny little island, the sun usually rises at about 6.30 a.m. I have, on more than one occassion, stayed up late enough to actually see the transition of the colour of the sky, and I must say that it is utterly disappointing. There are so many metaphors/idoms that revolve around daybreak. "Dawn of a new era" symbolises a bright new future for new beginning. To "dawn on" something is to have an enlightening realization of something. But the real dawn is far less appealing than these phrases that evoke a sense of new birth in a normal person. Sunrise breaks the fabric of the tranquil night sky. Bit by bit, ugly rays of sunlight force their way through the solid darkness under which true feelings are able to present themselves without pretense or avoidance. Eventually, all that arises other than the burning hot sun is the knowledge that another monotonous day has begun.

Then begins what we generally call the 'day'. Most people get out of their beds to go to school, work, or to do household chores. Some play golf and swim all day, breaking for food and drink in between. The day to be detailed no more than this because our existence belongs to it.

Then comes the time where most people stop their working day, pack their bags and go somewhere where they can spend some time appreciating the end of the day. Most people spend this time on the train. They get on when the sky's still bright and when they arrive at their destination, darkness has fallen and night has come. Dusk is the process of the sun retreating from its throne in the sky into the deepest valleys of the earth. In contrast to dawn, sunlight fades away bit by bit, leaving people to think that a glimmer of hope lies within those last rays projected from the sun.

Little do they know that those rays are only distractions from the real hope. Real hope that exists in darkness. When the sun goes down, there is no need to pretend to be happy when you're not. There's no need to be courteous to people you don't want to be courteous to. When night falls, one's character truly shines out, in defiance of the fact that the glaring rays of the sun shine no more. People go to pubs and clubs only at night. They can only enjoy themselves at such places of entertainment at night because only then can they bring themselves to admit that they are unhappy beings in need of some happiness, however superficial and shortlived. When the sun still sits high up on its throne in the sky, it subliminally reminds everyone that they are being watched. Every twitch of the eyebrow can be seen by virtue of the sun's light-giving traits. So people deal with dark and light, by creating a different persona for the hours when the sun is in the sky. So much so that that persona envelops a person's life and eventually devours the heart of his soul.

At the end of the day, this might seem like the rantings of an unnerved person. Truth is, it is hard to see the truth once we've been reigned into the eye of a tornado. You seem to stay still, you seem to be calm despite chaos all around, but does that calm stem from knowledge or foolishness? Ask any 25 year old working girl about which face is her true face: the one with make-up or the one without and she'll have a hard time trying to figure it out. She may tell you without flinching that the one without make-up is her real face, for she came into this world without any make-up on. But you can always trust that she will walk away from that conversation confused about the question, the answer to the question, and even more bewildered about her answer to the question.