Writing under one candle power

Exactly how powerful is one candle power? Powerful enough to see what you’re writing? To see where your ideas are going? Powerful enough to see where you’ve been? Light enough to chase away the darkness? Once, with a spelunking group, I was in a cave hiking alone following the new passages opened up by a cave-in, not a real good or stable idea. I was marking my path with my carbide lamp which is taboo in most exploring circles today, but this was over 50 years ago.

All of a sudden, my carbide lamp went out. All my efforts to restart it were in vain. I was in total darkness in a very strange place. If I moved around, I would risk falling into a crevasse and never to be found so I sat there in the darkness hoping that someone in our party of cave explorers would miss me and follow my markings. All I had to do is be patient and wait, and of course, not move around too much. The darkness was very penetrating, it went all the way through me. What seemed like an eternity was, in actuality, a few hours before I saw my friends’ light. If I hadn’t left my marks it could have been days before they found me. I can tell you from that experience, a candle can be a big lighted torch when you’re in total darkness deep inside a cave. That experience never left my memory. I have never experienced a darkness quite as black.

I have never undervalued a single candle power or the joy of the rising sun. As an artist you know that without light you don’t have color. Light makes the colors we perceive, without light, color perception does not exist. The only time you really know this is when you are in the total darkness, where the absence of light is blackness. That’s a world I hope I never have to experience again but I know the possibility exists and may happen at any time or anywhere. Sight is such a wonderful gift, never take it for granted.

Learning to see is more than looking, it’s recording in ones mind’s eye the images before them. Looking is not really seeing. Seeing is perceiving in all its realm of color, perspective distance. An artist often takes it one step further, they add their special internal perception to the view before them.

How powerful is one candle power or one sunrise…enough to light the world.

Harry Croghan is an artist, photographer, writer and teacher. You can send comments to croghan@dragonbbs.com or call (740) 852-4906.