SHADOWS OF OUR DECK RAILINGS

Weekend time.  Tonight's entertainment is a chicken dinner down in the Great Room.  Dinner includes wine and dessert.  A nice event to shepherd us Venniers together for social interaction.  Since Covid, I've morphed into a rather reclusive soul.  I actually need a nudge to partake.  Shame on me.

The snow on our deck has been replaced with shadows of the railing.  Shadows are fascinating..... 

• Shadows can help us accurately estimate the time of day by observing their length and position.  Ancient civilizations, like the Egyptians, used this knowledge to construct sundials that used shadow movements as an indication of timekeeping.
• The Shadow has long been of interest to artists, photographers and scientists.  Artists use shadows to add depth, mood and emphasis in their artwork.  Photographers pay particular attention to shadows for dramatic lighting effects.  Scientists utilize shadow research as a means of uncovering insights into light's properties as it interacts with objects in nature.
• Shadows can create optical illusions that play with our perception.  For instance, the famous "Ames Room" illusion uses shadow sizes distortion to make people seem much bigger or smaller than they actually are.

• 

  Two adults standing in an Ames Room
  with a significant difference in size.

  The Ames Room was invented by American scientist Adelbert Ames, Jr., in 1946.  An Ames Room is viewed with one eye through a peephole.  The observer will see that an adult standing in one corner of the room along the back wall appears to be a giant, while another adult standing in the other corner along the back wall appears to be a dwarf.  An adult who moves from one corner of the room to the other appears to change dramatically in size.  Aaaaahhhh, the power of illusion.
• Shadows have cultural and symbolic importance.  In many cultures, shadows have come to symbolize darkness, mystery and the unknown; metaphorically used as an emblematic representation of hidden aspects of ourselves such as fears or subliminal desires.
• Facts such as these offer insight.  They show how shadows are so much more than just mere absence of light.  They're complex phenomena with vast history and wide-reaching artistic, scientific and cultural implications.

In folklore, The Shadow is known as the doppelganger, or "double-walker."  The dark, mysterious essence of the Shadow has intrigued mankind since the beginning of time.  The Shadow is attached to all things.  All that's required is a little bit of light, for there cannot be a shadow unless we first have light.  

Question to ponder:  Are we simply a breath and a shadow?