PERFECT DARK

Has anything like this ever happened to you?  Alone, really alone surrounded by nothing and wondering how to get out of it?  I suppose that many of you are thinking about this in relationship to psychological reality.  Good going.  But there is a lighter side to this too, but nonetheless quite challenging.  

You all remember when you sought what you thought would be perfect darkness so that you could see your "glow-in-the-dark" bauble.  You went to your room and tried everything you knew to do to make it real dark.  Why is that that there always seemed to be some little crack of light somewhere?  Don't you remember that you were thinking that if that little crack of light would go away, your toy would be brighter?  You grew up and you knew that in certain conditions there is an absolute absence of light.  You knew it, but you had never lived it.  Then one day, or night, it happened and you were introduced to the perfect darkness.  You were told to put your hand in front of your face and sure enough, you couldn't see it.  It was truly, really dark. You weren't afraid because you knew that the guide had his finger on the switch and after a moment you you be fine and normal again.  I had a life experience once when I was being treated to a tour of a real gold mine.  I was about 22 or 23 and my father and I were visiting some cousins of his in Timmins, Ontario, Canada.  The man of the house was an elevator operator for the miners.  He had been doing it for 25 or more years.  Never had an accident.  This elevator went down slightly more that one mile to the bottom level of the mine.  5,600+ feet.  This man had mechanical aids to help him know where the cage was at every inch of the way, down or up.  Never had an accident.  Anyway, on this day, he is with us at the 5,200 foot level and he explains that sometimes the miner's hat light malfunctions.  It is then the law of the mine that the miner must return to the surface.  My father was incredulous, as only EFR Dion could be incredulous.  I didn't know that he had such a colorful French vocabulary!  While we were busy laughing and at the same time wondering how we would be if our lamp malfunctioned, the cousin, Adelard, by name, asked us to shut off our helmet lamps and get the "feel" for five minutes.  Immediately EFR Dion says, "Oh yeah, five minutes.  How you going to know?"  My cousin simply said, 'We'll all know."  He was so cool.  He was so certain.  He was so courageous.  He was so sure of himself that we could do nothing but turn our lamps off.  I don't know about my father, but I didn't breathe for at least the first minute.  It was absolutely shocking and perfect, unadulterated fear filled my being.  What saved me were two things.  I was NOT going to be outdone by "you know who."  Also, I had my finger on the switch, praying to my guardian angel that when I was ready, the switch and the light would work.  Competitive as we were [past tense for obvious reasons], we didn't "cave" and when Adelard turned his lamp on, we did too.  I remember that we did not talk, not a single word for at least 15 minutes after the lights went back on.  On a lighter note, you want to know how many minutes we spent the total, perfect darkness.  Adelard timed it.  EIGHT.  EFR Dion says, "I win!"  We laughed and lived with the experience for the rest of our lives. 

In closing, I have to say that the words of the Bible extol the light as being a description of God.  The darkness is the embodiment of evil.  The gold mine experience confirms the truth of that comparison for me.  Remember, I (we) experienced it in the company of loving family.  I can't imagine doing it with strangers.  May we all walk in the aura of the Divine Light every day of our lives.