Analyzing Enlightenment

It does sometimes happen, while teaching English as a foreign language, that your students will throw you for a loop.  You will be giving your pat answer to a question of vocabulary or grammar, and they ask a question that makes you realize that your knowledge of English is less than perfect – because, of course, everyone’s is.

Neither Dark nor Heavy

The question wasn’t really that difficult and, besides, I knew the student was just trying to keep me talking because he knew I was going to pull out “The Billionaire Game,” a grammar quiz of my own invention which some of my students like but this particular group is totally sick of.  So, he asked me about the word “light.”  Does that mean the bulb or is that the absence of darkness?

Well, I have given some thought to this word.  First, of course, it is both the bulb and the state in which darkness is absent, but it is also a verb meaning to start a fire and, by extension, a tool which does that job, a lighter.

But then there is the other meaning, light as the opposite of heavy.  And that leads me to the big question:  is it the absence of darkness or the low amount of weight which is the root of the word enlightenment?  Because they both could be.

It could be like a light bulb popping on over your head, like in the cartoons when you suddenly get an idea.  We see things more clearly in the light and I guess the whole idea of enlightenment is seeing.  Seeing the universe for what it is, seeing the miracle in the mundane, seeing the connections between all things and the overall pattern of the web of life.  We say seeing when we mean understanding, as in the expression “I see.”  So if the light is turned on you will see, that is  understand, the universe better.

On the other hand, lightness means being unencumbered, it leads to elevation, floating, balloons are lighter than air, we speak of “being on cloud 9” or “walking on air” when we are extremely happy, and if someone is too stressed we tell them to “lighten up.”   Isn’t happiness the ultimate goal?  Ask yourself, who is better off, who is, in fact, more enlightened: someone who understands the universe or someone who is happy?  I’d like to think the two are not mutually exclusive.  I’d like to think that, in fact, understanding the universe would lead to happiness although, thus far, the universe has given me little reason to believe that that is the case.

In any event, we never did get to The Billionaire Game.  I think the students were happy about that.  I doubt they were much enlightened.