Delight

I love the word 'delight'. Do you?

For me, it conjures up the joy of pleasure in our senses, a moment of unabashed happiness, a lovely occurrence of pure glee.

A delicious morsel on the tongue, a beautiful view of the sun setting over the ocean, an exquisite, dulcet sound, a sweet touch that is savored, the smell of a newborn's head. Ahh, delight.

Could 'delight' refer to a lack of light?

The prefix "de-" generally means "down," "away from," "off," or "removal". 

Such as Defrost: to remove frost 

Or Deplane: to get off a plane 

Or Depose: to force someone to leave an office or position 

Or Degrade: to lower in rank, status, or character

The very same word has been used to describe a lack of light, with 'de' understood as 'a taking away', a taking away of light.

Could delight connote darkness?

I have a different take on it, inspired by the words of poet and essayist Ross Gay.

Delight is of the light and de-light is without the light. The word acknowledges that pain and suffering is part of life and love, and near to both joy and sorrow.

The light and darkness are two sides of the same coin. We have day and night. We have up and down, in and out, over and under, waxing and waning.

Delight is part of the fabric of life, woven into the warp and the weft. We need both to make a strong fabric.

We learn so much from our mistakes, our trials and tribulations, our pain, the lack of light. That turns into lessons learned, earned wisdom, liberation, freedom, love and ultimately the full spectrum of light.

Next time you hear the word 'delight', perhaps hold for a moment in your mind's eye, the beauty of the sun and the moon. We need both.