Duality

As the skies above Bangalore darken, it's really ironic that I'm writing my first blog under the title of illumination. However, it's only darkness that makes us feel the power of illumination. We don't realise its power but darkness is really all around us. For proof, just close your eyes. Now, I don't intend to embark on a lengthy harangue on darkness or even on illumination. My objective is much more mundane, even innocuous.
The word illuminate comes from the Latin luminare meaning "to light up" prefixed by in, the same prefix that turns logical to illogical, rational to irrational and legitimate to illegitimate. Apparently, illuminate should mean the inverse of lighting up going by that logic, but language is not always logical and this innocuous prefix in Latin has another meaning too. It refers to the inside, in much the same way the English word of the same spelling does. Even with the second meaning of the prefix, this word is interesting, because we usually associate the inside of something with darkness. Or shall I rather say, the inside of something is its darker side. This is true both literally and figuratively.
The most common source of light in our daily life being the sun, which is definitely on the outside of any conceivable three-dimensional object we can imagine, the shielded inside is always dark and needs to be illuminated. One would do well to remember that practically all our illumination needs stem from the absence of sunlight in desired intensity. Hence, lighting up is really an endorsement of the darkness that prevails inside.
In most languages, darkest thoughts are usually referred to as being deep inside one's mind. Although, this metaphor has been taken from our physical experience, it has taken on linguistic dimensions too great to be categorised as merely a corollary of the physical experience. In fact researchers have over the centuries tried to pore deep inside the human mind in a variety of ways, some not so honourable, to discover their darkest thoughts, fears and emotions. In many cases they have brought many of these deep secrets to light; in many cases they have failed. But the interesting thing to note is that very few have been able to illuminate those deep, dark chambers of the mind. In fact, they have pushed these dark thoughts deeper inside the human mind to its underbelly. In this sense, illumination has curiously taken on a meaning which is more in consonance with that it would get if the first meaning of the Latin prefix in applied to it.
Well, it's time to cut this analysis short. The moot point is it's immensely difficult to truly illuminate. Clap your hands, you produce sound energy; kick a football high up in the air you produce kinetic energy; it reaches its zenith and stops momentarily, you have created potential energy. Think of some way you can produce light energy on your own. Photons may be massless but they are just not our game. We create a lot of noise, start movements, go to high positions of power but even though we have been civilised for millennia we haven't been totally illuminated. Maybe this is the essence of civilisation, the perpetuation of darkness at least to some extent. Or we would be lost on the power of illumination. A state of total illumination is as good or as bad as a state of total darkness. It's the triumph of civilisation that we have neither.
Light a bulb, did someone say?