In many ways I found it ironic that it was such a bright day full of sunshine (at least here), given the sort of news that filled today around my corner of the world. I do not wish to comment on those stories in detail, as horrified as I am by reading and hearing about how people could be kidnapped and held in their own neighborhood for ten years without anyone being the wiser for it, or how cities pretend to be too poor to pay their obligations by covering up their assets.

Sunlight is an unusual metahpor that speaks to us differently depending on our perspective and experiences. For those who are in darkness, there is often the longing for light to guide one’s path to avoid hazards and to cheer up and brighten the dismal scene. At other times sunlight can be harsh and in your eyes, its brightness preventing someone from seeing, and at times (especially to those of us with fair skin and dim eyes) even hurting one’s ability to see. A bright light over the shoulder is a help–one shining directly at your face is usually not helpful.

There are many people who long for sunlight. Again, those who stumble in the darkness (often through no fault of their own) may intensely desire sunlight to light their difficult ways. Ohter people may be (relatively) open and honest about how they live and do not mind living in the light. There are many people, though, who fear the sunlight, whether because they are afraid they cannot cope with it (a problem most famously discussed in Plato’s allegory of the cave), or because the light is hostile to their aims. We ought not to be too harsh on those who fear, for often people have very good reasons to be afraid, but we ought to be much more willing to point the light at dark places where evil flourishes.

This requires a delicate balance, one I often struggle with. We all need shade, a place to protect ourselves from the harshness of constant direct sunlight. We all deserve some private place where we can be ourselves without fear of condemnation or harsh criticism. To the extent that any of us deny others this refuge, we act in violence against others. We ought to understand, though, that the comfortable and shady places of our refuge are not places of darkness, but of indirect light, where we can still be seen (as can what is around us) without the harsh glare that makes direct sunlight so unpleasant. If we were better at capturing and understanding and dealing with indirect sunlight, we would have fewer reasons to fear the light at all.

There is much in this world that remains in darkness. Whether we are dealing with the deeds of the wicked, or those who are prisoners of the wicked (whether literally or not), our fervent desire to bring matters into the light needs to be tempered by prudence in how this is done, lest we harm those whom we intend to help. While I certainly do not pretend to be perfect at this task, and while at times even mere competence seems beyond my grasp, we can greater understand wisdom by examining the world around us, whether we are dealing with the physical creation or with the inhabitants therein.