I work strange hours. As a tech support and network person I spend lots of dark nights sat warm and snug in a double-glazed computer room watching upwards of 12 screens, waiting for the first sign of a server failure.
I share the room with others, most of them sat in t-shirts and often shorts, feet up sipping on a coffee and watching for some blip or glitch to intrude on the companys profits. The Tea I drink is free, my food is cooled nicely in a company-provided fridge and I can warm it through in a microwave in the kitchen.
There’s no real need to go into the darkness outside. Usually its cold, and on nights like these it can be windy, it can rain and there are often minor hazards such as people wandering around looking maybe for a chance to cause trouble.
But I still go out.
Whenever I get the chance I take my break outside, walking through the dark streets to the nearby pond or climbing into my cold car to head for high spots close to where I work, where I can stand at a trig point and watch moonlit clouds scud overhead, or watch the light trails cast by cars below me.
Darkness to me brings everything out in a stark relief. Most people fear the darkness, looking behind at every sound or movement and wondering who or what is there. As we move further into our age of technology peoples fear of the dark will become worse as they watch Netflix and Amazon and see the fantastical and often fearsome creatures that live in the night.
Maybe light will encroach further into the night, or as we struggle more and more to preserve our energy reserves we will draw back into our cities and leave the countryside for the night. I hope its the latter.
roypollard 