Why do we need the dark? What part of us craves the shivery story, the one that wakes you up and says, “It could be true. Did you check under the bed?” What calls us from the dark?

It sounds like pathology. Something wrong in us. That we would look at those negative images, bad self tapes, dark personal moments. There’s a part of me, even in thinking that wants to run away into the sun and pretend there is no dark.

There’s a dark that really is evil. It does want our destruction. It feeds self hate and self loathing. Sometimes it comes in the form of voices from the past. or part of the culture. Sometimes it’s a voice out of nowhere.

There’s a dark that’s just plain reporting. We’ve seen this stuff. And we need to say what we’ve seen, just as a reality check.

Where does that take us as artists? Do we run from the dark? Paint rainbows and unicorns and refuse the scary? There are artists who seem to have done that. Although the comment about unicorns is unfair. It’s as if they stared into the dark and then turned around and stared into the light.

These are pictures by Odilon Redon. He was a symbolist at the turn of the twentieth century. He went from some rather disturbing images to luminous paintings of what could be either saints or gods.

I haven’t found any research that says why. I can guess.

There was a country that tried to stop grandmothers from reading fairy tales to children. The children suffered all kinds of disturbances, mostly about fear and and loss.

We need to look at the dark, sometimes. Not as our only focus, but so we can really look at the light in comparison. Because the dark is real. As we tell tales about it, we are transforming ourselves in the story. We are creating a people that can go from dark to light.

Do I think everyone’s dark is the same? Heaven’s, no. I know that for everyone there are insurmountable problems we have to surmount, journeys into nowhere that need a destination. We win over those things by transforming ourselves. By  changing the story.

The World in Reflection,  the third book of Sight Unseen series, is a journey from dark towards the light. It’s not a tidy story. Life is too messy for tidy stories. But I think you’ll find it intriguing. Perhaps even transformational.

If you are willing to help me with a review on this book, I will send you a free ecopy in the format of your choice. I ask you read at least three stories, and write a short review. Naturally I probably won’t use your review if you give me a negative three stars and a string of four letter words. But I am asking for honest opinions.

If you are willing to help, email me at ellenanneeddy@gmail.com and I will send you a book to read.  Perhaps it will help you transform something for yourself.

And Thank You!