Decisions in Daylight and Darkness

As to the distortions of darkness⎯many things are imagined. Troubles are magnified and symptoms also, and worries become more weighty in the hours of the night. And decisions made in darkness may also be distorted (and decisions also in sorrow). Sometimes people feel pressed and persuaded to make far-reaching decisions without taking time for proper perspective⎯people in sorrow, people who have lost their loved ones, people who are discouraged and despondent, people who are facing acute crises. They may decide, for example, to sell, to quit, to move elsewhere, to change the pattern of their lives, to give up various interests or activities. Sometimes they are hurt, confused, tense, stunned for the moment, and are not best able under such circumstances to make the safest decisions. But with time and reflection, the first sharpness of sorrow somewhat subsides. With time and reflection calm reason returns; perspective comes into fuller focus⎯ to give a safer sense of values. In short, decisions made at more leisure, and in the light, and with the clouds a bit cleared, tend to be safer decisions. There is another kind of hasty decision that should be shunned: decisions in anger, in the heat of resentment, decisions prompted not by reason or fact, but by hot emotion. We should never let heat rule our heads and issue unreasonable ultimatums, that we are likely long to regret. Time is a great healer. Patience is a great factor of safety. Perspective is a great revealer of true shapes and values, and in the discouragement of darkness, or in the heat of anger or in the acuteness of sorrow, it is seldom safe to make far-reaching decisions. Let time five its perspective; let time try its healing process; let time soften the sorrow and appraise the values and suggest the course. Let time take time to tell whether or not the feelings of the moment would be the same feelings that would move us in a month or in six months. Let time defer the decisions of darkness and discouragement until we can look at things in the light⎯for the clearness of daylight and the calmer consideration that follows the first sharpness of sorrow is a safer time for decisions.