Light!

Some believe that it is only great power that can hold evil in check. But that is not what I've found. I found it is the small things. Every day deeds by ordinary folk that keeps the darkness at bay.

—Gandalf

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.

Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time.

—Robert Jordan

I don't want you to hit that little red X in the corner or remove the bookmark on this page, but I have a confession. I like reading nerdy things.

I'm not going to go delving into any of them, because there are an awful lot of people in this world that would find that to be a bore. So don't worry. But I do have a word of advice: try it. Try the things you've once thought to be nerdy. It won't make you a permanent nerd—stereotypes are the biggest understatement known to man—and it's amazing what kinds of life lessons you can learn from them. I saw it on Facebook first: I've learned so much from the people who never existed.

(But to the proud nerds out there reading this, posted on the first Monday after the release of A Memory of Light, yes. This is my [rather unusual] Tribute to an ending.)

Feel free to laugh at the parallels you find.

Light is a peculiar thing, and it is one of my most favorite topics. This partly has to do with the fact that I adore studying conceptual physics. I love Einstein's gedanken experiments. Light is, perhaps, the most fundamental thing in the universe. Light is also the only thing in the world—that I know of, please don't take my word as gospel or rant if it's incorrect—that cannot be contended by it's opposite. Where light resides, there simply cannot be darkness. Darkness can't even try to put up a fight.

So what can be learned from this peculiar thing, light? Blunt Answer: More than you or I can even comprehend. If you think light is just light, you are wrong. I'm going to stay on the shallow end of things, where most of us can comprehend the answers in a few paragraphs, but I must make it known: Light is the greatest force in the universe.

I might be going just a little too far for the physics folks if I say this, and I am definitely not a physicist, but: light is the unifying force in all things. (Go at it, experimentalists!)

Try this one on for size: without light, the universe simply would not exist. Looking at the light-bulb in your ceiling, you probably couldn't tell that. But it's true.

The kind of light I'm talking about is indeed physical light, but I want to address it in it's metaphorical form as well. Light is a representation of several things, but at it's core it is Truth. Encompassed therein are Knowledge, as well as Wisdom, as well as undiluted Purity, as well as perfect Love. This is Light.

All persons have Light. Even the ones we don't think could possibly have any, they have it. Light is a quantity, and some of us will have more than others. You know it because you can see it. You can see it with your eyes. It doesn't register as physical light, but your heart knows what it is, and it will tell you when it sees it.

Trust your intuition. It sees Light.

In the world, good things happen in light places. Good things happen publicly. Good people operate under a glass roof, where their works can be seen as honest.

The forces of evil operate in darkness. They hide their hearts from others. They creep in the shadows and stalk where they can't be seen. When they must go into the light, they put on a façade and pretend they are transparent, then run away and lock themselves behind closed doors. They may speak words of light, but you will know the truth, for they do their deeds in the darkness. And they are Dark.

The world contains both the good and the bad. Should we destroy the possibility of the bad? Make the world purely, completely, good? It would seem that our goal is to defy the darkness in all ways we can, to beat that animal part inside us and prove that we are in control of our own bodies. If we could completely obliterate the darkness, and any chance that we could ever be turned by that darkness, wouldn't the world be a better place?

No. A world without Dark does not make it Light. It makes it nothing. It makes the people in it pawns, just as the darkness makes people into pawns. We must be able to chose between these forces for ourselves.

If there is one thing you should take away here, it is this: While Light is the most desirable, and Dark the most repulsive, these things cannot exist without the other. If we never knew Dark, we could not comprehend Light. So while we strive to stay as close to those things that are light, and we can fight against those things that are dark, remember that the struggle is a necessary one, and an eternal one.

Don't lose Hope. If you could destroy Dark, Light would cease to be Light. So, really, the world we have—where both exist and we have the power to chose between them, appreciating the light because we've been in the dark—is the best thing there is. Take heart and rejoice!

To the Christians:

It is true: We have each been tainted, and we don't have the complete power to deny the Dark. It has already come upon us, through to Fall of Adam. So aren't we lucky that it can be removed through the sacrifice of the Savior? We just have to take His name upon us, and do as He would have us do. We can recognize it just as we recognize Light. Through our spiritual eyes.

***

(spoiler for A Memory of Light, final book of The Wheel of Time)

HERE IS THE TRUTH. . .YOU CANNOT WIN UNLESS WE GIVE UP. THAT'S IT, ISN'T IT? THIS FIGHT ISN'T ABOUT A VICTORY IN BATTLE. TAKING ME...IT WAS NEVER ABOUT BEATING ME. IT WAS ABOUT BREAKING ME.

THAT'S WHAT YOU'VE TRIED TO DO WITH ALL OF US. IT'S WHY AT TIMES YOU TRIED TO HAVE US KILLED, WHILE OTHER TIMES YOU DIDN'T SEEM TO CARE. YOU WIN WHEN YOU BREAK US. BUT YOU HAVEN'T. YOU CAN'T.

Our agency to act is ours. And Darkness can win only when we give up...when it convinces us that we've fallen so far that we cannot be redeemed. That is a lie. You have never fallen so far as to not be able to pick yourself up, even if it takes time, and healing, and help.
So don't give up.

(Another spoiler)

That one you have tried to kill many times, that one who lost his kingdom, that one from whom you took everything...that man. That man still fights!

Thank you, Team Jordan, for everything you have done.