Who Cares about Sunsets? - Photo Essay

It’s weird that English doesn’t have a word that can be used for both sunsets and sunrises. They’re basically identical events played in reverse: a change in the color of the sky associated with the sun passing the horizon line.

The closest that I could find about to the word I’m describing is “twilight”, which occurs at both dawn and dusk, but really describes the quality of the light rather than the movement of the sun. Here’s a useless fact: Animals that are active primarily during these two times are called “crepuscular.”

Earth has seen 1.7 trillion sunrises and 1.7 trillion sunsets. It happens twice a day, every day. You’ll see more sunsets and sunrises in your life than you will full moons, Wednesdays, Arbor Days, dentist appointments, or garbage collection days.

So why are sunsets and sunrises special? Why do vacation-goers line the beaches to watch the rising of the same sun they could have watched from home? Why is climbing to the top of some bluff to “watch the sunset” a normal activity, when traveling to observe high-noon sounds so strange?

A photographer, the most crepuscular organism that ever existed, will tell you that twilight produces “golden hour,” a warmer, softer light that makes just about any subject look better. People look cheerier, healthier, and more attractive. Long shadows create drama and highlight the details of buildings or mountains. The air itself seems brighter and more colorful.

Then, twenty minutes later, the magic is gone, and we’re left with either stark midday or bleak night.

For those 30 minute stretches at either twilight, everything does look about as good as it can. The sky and the earth is covered by a warm filter like a Quentin Tarantino movie. I think that extends to mental states. I think a good sunset makes us happier about the person whose hand we’re holding, or the party we’re at, or the evening commute home.

Maybe that means that if we could convince the sun to sit exactly so on the horizon permanently, we’d all live happy, fulfilled lives. Maybe it means we’re vain animals that like twinkly lights.Or maybe it just means that most people appreciate an excuse to stop for a minute once or twice a day and share in a common spectacle. One that drapes everything in orange, like a campfire for the whole world.

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