I heard recently that astronauts train (used to train?) deep down in caves. Caves present that extraordinary phenomenon of complete blackness. They call it TCD: Total Cave Darkness. It's the kind of darkness astronauts encounter in outer space. Inner Earth. Outer Space. They have the same lighting, or no-lighting. When we close our eyes we see black, too. But usually not all black. I see light patterns, sometimes moving shapes, and one persistent design that has followed me my whole closed-eye life - a perfect 35mm frame of an amoeba burning in a stuck film projector. Sometimes faces fade in and out. Faces of no one I know. Sometimes carnival-like with exaggerated features. Not very friendly folk. Who are these people?
We don't usually like the dark. Maybe for sleeping. When you can't see you don't know where you are. But even so, you're right there. Being blind is not disappearing. What the blind see is the inside. Inside the cave. And outside. As large as Outer Space.
Makes you wonder where light comes from and why it decides to barge in on darkness. Is light the extrovert, dark the introvert? Light loud, dark dumb. Dusk, twilight, dawn. The wedding of the two. The romantic blending of extremes. The much more personable "grey."
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