What’s better?
You may think ‘it’s gotta be a sunrise, the dawn of a new day blah blah’. And yeah, I would agree with that hopeful ideology IF I didn’t find mornings so violent, tasteless, and abrupt.
Clearly, I am not a morning person. In fact, I do my best to miss them completely. People act like this is some sort of crime…‘You are wasting the day!’. Well are they not also wasting the night? As they sleep like most in this time-zone, I am alive in the silence. Writing, reading, watching, listening, gaming, or reorganising the layout of my room for no reason. And just at the cusp of sunrise, I sleep. Most of the sunrises I see are the ones I’ve accidentally stumbled upon when I’ve stayed up too late. I can only remember one sunrise that I purposefully witnessed: 4am in Summer long past, mid-way through a harry potter movie marathon with my friends (we needed to stretch our legs). I remember because one friend was whining about the whole affair, while the other friend was resting her head on my shoulder, wordless.
Sunsets are my walking companion, I see a lot more of those. These days they usually greet me as I walk to work. As everyone else is slamming the doors of their work vans or ushering the kids in for tea, homes glow gold from the inside out as families settle down to a shared meal. My day is just beginning, eyes to the sky that’s set alight in glorious shades that turn the rooftops and trees into pitch black silhouettes. We have had a lot of cool sunsets recently, the scorched pinks and heavenly yellows make up for the cold air which is as fresh as it is bitter. I’ll look up one last time as I ping my mask over my ears before stepping through the doors to work. My theory is that a beautiful sunset/sunrise is nature’s way of saying ‘Yo, it’s gonna be okay. P.S. look how cool I am.’
Let’s face it, sunsets and sunrises can look pretty fricking similar. When presented with a photograph of a colourful sky I wouldn’t be able to tell what time of day I was looking at.
For me, sunsets are a travel companion, whereas sunrises are as invisibly beautiful as friendship.
Which do you prefer?
