Sunset - Is it the Beginning or the End?

What a beautiful sight!  I was sitting in my car waiting for my client to arrive. I was watching the clouds turn from white to orange.  Time flies so fast and I did not realize that the sun is already setting down. I have to hurry! I have to take a picture while I still can and there it is, not taken by a professional but its a candid shot,  its for me. It is reflective of what I see in that glorious moment when no one else even bother to look at.  Motorists pass-by minding and doing their own businesses, trying to catch up what remains of their day, to maybe make a deal or two before they lay their mortal bodies to rest.

Why do people hurry when they see the sunset?  Is it the end of their day? Really?  The western culture made it that way.  Sunrise is the beginning and sunset is the end of man’s working day.  It makes sense, for we only work during day time and rest at night.  However, the clock starts at 12:01 AM, a minute past midnight, where the end meets its beginning.  It is a cycle.  But if midnight is the end of the day, why do people treat the sunset as the end of the day?  There is a disconnect with perception and reality.  Who invented the clock anyway? Who said that midnight is the end and 12:01 AM is the beginning of the day? Our body tells us that sunrise is the beginning while sunset is the end of the day.  But wait! There are other factors to consider.  The cock crows at dawn, few hours before sunrise and the old folks, the farmers, the fishermen and our grandmothers starts their day around this time.  Why? Is it a tradition?  An unspoken rule?

To many working class, specially those in the city, consider the sunset as a cue to end the day but there is one group of people who would consider the sunset as the beginning of the day.  The Hebrew people, known today as the Jews, consider sunset as the beginning of a new day.  How in the world would they think that? Well, its a tradition, a culture or whatever it is, but it is odd.  How can the end of the day for most of the people becomes just the beginning to the Jews? For starters, it is biblical.  It is in the Bible!  The account of each day of creation in Genesis ended up with “…it was evening and morning, the first day” and so forth and so on.

In my opinion, however, sunset is the beginning rather than the end for practical reason. We have to understand that all works need to start with a dream and a plan and has to be done in a silent contemplation usually done at sunset.  It is a reflection of what was and how to proceed from henceforth.  In the beginning, there is hope, there is something to look forward to, to rest and to wake up and implement the plans set at sunset.  For me, it is the most beautiful part of the day for it is the cue to start planning at the setting of the sun, dreaming at night and waking up excited and bring all these dreams to light….at sunrise.