For a few minutes, a sunrise collects all that ineffable bittersweetness into a single burning point. People (including my mom) can be forgiven for wanting to hold on to it in a photo. Outside the camera, though, sunrises escape. They show us that time is passing and the earth is turning, one of two times in the day at most latitudes when the light changes fast enough for us to perceive the shift. To watch it is to understand that while the sun rises every day, no individual sunrise will ever happen again. Each one gives us an image of renewal, return, creation, and a “new day,” and it
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