Let it shine, let it shine

As I write this, the blanket of Midwest gray has been pulled over us. There may be a day or three yet of bright sunshine, but soon enough the light will be dulled, thinned, extinguished—my metaphors depend on my level of desperation. I was born and raised in suburban Washington D.C., and before I moved to northern Illinois I’d lived in southeast Ohio for seven years—enough time, I felt, to have charged my internal solar battery for years to come. After nearly three decades, that fund is rapidly ...