Equinox.

Either of the two points on the celestial sphere where the celestial equator intersects the ecliptic.

Same days are darker than others. Everyone handles this in their own way. Some will curl up and hibernate through tough times, some will lash out in revolt, some will allow the darkness in and let it take hold, others will see the meaning in the darkness, and others, upon seeing that meaning, will begin to appreciate the dark days as much as the light ones.

Say every day was dark. Say God never spoke those fateful words — let there be light. Suppose all our skin was pale, all our eyes were red, and the only vegetation that grew was moss in the moonlight. Would dark days seem so bad then? Would dark still be a metaphor for things evil and unfortunate? Darkness would be quotidian, and we would not crave light. In fact, it would likely burn our skin.

Say, then, one day the sun did rise. Say it didn’t burn our skin, and say it didn’t change the way society would operate. Say it rose and we noticed the beauty of things in the light. It is not the sun we would owe thanks for the beauty. Contrarily, we should thank the darkness. For with nothing to compare it against, light is quotidian. Just as the dark was not bad before the light, light is not good without the dark. It cannot exist.

It makes you wonder if anything exists without an opposite, outside a duality, or if such a thing would be impossible to contrast and impossible to notice. Some philosophers believe words only hold meaning inasmuch as the things that they do not mean. Perhaps things are only what they are inasmuch as they are not other things. Perhaps light cannot exist without dark, and perhaps that makes darkness just as important. And if darkness is as important as light, perhaps we can grow fond of it.