Lightning in the Collied Night

"Swift as a shadow, short as any dream,

Brief as the lightning in the collied night,

That in a spleen unfolds both heaven and earth,

And ere a man hath power to say 'Behold!'

The jaws of darkness do devour it up.

So quick bright things come to confusion." 

- Lysander in A Midsummer Night's Dream (page 8)

During our class discussion on A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare, this quote by Lysander jumped out at me.  As noted in class, it is out of character for the loverboy to have such a deep revelation and, in my opinion, almost an epiphany.  It is such a beautiful saying, and yet I am filled with a sense foreboding and sadness.  

I took this to apply to my life, and I suppose all lives in general - we are but a flash of lightning in a dark sky.  Well, as uplifting as that fails to be, it is also oddly beautiful and has a silent sense of calm to it.  I suppose it's true, that in the grand scheme of the world our time around lasts about as long as a quick bolt of lightning.  But what if it is so much more than that?

I know this varies somewhat from Lysander's point that brightness is quickly devoured up by darkness, but Lysander fails to appreciate the power of lightning in it's quick moment of existence.  I believe that brief instant has the power to conquer the darkness, even if the light itself only lasts for a second.

Lightning itself is incredible - one flash lights up the whole sky.  What if in our lives we lived in such a way that, even if only for a moment, we illuminated the world around us?  What then would it be like?  And what if everyone lived in such a way, so that there were constant threads of light, always illuminating the sky and driving back the darkness?  Even if we as individuals were only able to make a difference for the briefest of moments, there would be so many of us that the darkness could not possibly overcome it all.  

And what about fire?  As we know all too well, lightning has the power to start a fire that can grow out of control, spreading to the edges, heating and destroying, but also creating new life.  And what if this fire that one spark of lightning creates manages to destroy the darkness of the earth, and illuminate the sky, and make room for new, bright life to exist.  

I believe that this is what we are supposed to do in our lives, we must refuse to be complacent with the darkness, and seek to illuminate the world and create new growth, even if it is just for a moment.  We would be nowhere in life if others had simply lingered in the way things were without setting a spark, allowing others to see the contrast between light and darkness, and leading to new ideas and discoveries.  I by no means claim to be an expert on any of this, but I have seen how one person can make a difference.  I know these examples are far more complex than I am making them out to be, but think of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and his willingness to be that light and start a fire.  Think of Isaac Newton and the discovery of gravity that changed science. 

That is why I beg to differ with Lysander, and see the flash of lightning not only as something that does not need to be devoured by darkness, but as what we should be doing with our lives.

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?"

- Mary Oliver (The Summer Day, lines 18-19)