49. everything is illuminated in the dark

Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything is Illuminated
I am always intrigued by how much darkness amplifies things.  Waking up from a scary dream in the dark is much more terrifying than waking up in light.  The sounds you hear outside and inside are much louder when it is nighttime.  Even your sight seems to increase in the dark- little things you never noticed during the daylight are much more noticeable when they are ensconced in shadow.  Feelings seem to also seem much more intense in the night hours.  But is that because the rest of the world seems to be asleep (or wide awake when you want to be asleep.... aka the partying neighbors)?  And there is less to think about because you are left to your own devices?  I am currently left to my own devices and I am a little upset.  I should be snuggled up and snoozing right now, but i am not.  do certain things, like darkness, illuminate other aspects of life?  Does the past illuminate the future (or vice versa)?  Does the absence or presence of family/friends/loves illuminate our own selves?  In my mind this is what Safran Foer was trying to ask.... maybe I'm wrong. 

Good book, though.  The past and the future and the friends and the family and the lightness and darkness and absence and presence of sound illuminate ourselves and our true identities.  And there is nothing we can do to change that.