Light and Flight

 

The word "light" holds a fascinating duality, encompassing both "illumination" and "lightness." An additional layer in English, "flight," adds a captivating dimension of escape, ascension, and soaring, much like the act of flying. This connection between light, lightness, and flight recurs throughout history in numerous works and can also be found in the works of great thinkers.

For instance, Albert Einstein incorporated "light" into his famous equation, E=MC², thereby linking the immense energy contained within matter to the speed of light. His theory of relativity demonstrates how movement at high velocities, approaching the speed of light, affects the perception of time and space, creating a sense of expansion and elevation, a kind of "flight" into new realms of cosmic understanding.

Similar to Einstein, the Greek poet Odysseus Elytis connected the external light, the bright sunlight of Greece, with the lightness of the soul and its liberation from the heavy mass of the oppressive past. His work is akin to a journey, a poetic "flight," in which a person rises above the shadows of the past, shakes off the weight of burdens, and ascends toward light and freedom. His poems are filled with images of light, sea, sky, and birds, symbolizing the aspiration for spiritual elevation, to escape ("flight") from the confining reality into the expanses of imagination and creation.

The connection between light, lightness, and "flight" is also distinctly expressed in the art of cinema. Cinema, as an art based on light and shadow, uses lighting to create atmosphere, emphasize emotions, and tell a story. Moreover, camera movement, which often simulates the motion of flight or hovering, contributes to the sense of "flight," of detachment from the ground and from everyday reality. Many films use visual imagery of flight, either explicitly, such as in scenes of airplane or spaceship flights, or implicitly, through high-angle shots, flowing camera movements, and the use of special effects that create an illusion of levitation. In many films, physical or metaphorical flight serves as a means of expressing the desire for freedom, spiritual elevation, and the crossing of boundaries.

The connection between "light" in its various meanings – illumination, lightness, and "flight" (escape, aviation) – highlights the link between the physical world, the world of matter and energy, and the spiritual world, the world of emotion and imagination. Sunlight, as well as cinematic light, as a symbol of knowledge, truth, and freedom, enables "flight," the spiritual elevation and liberation from all that binds us, whether it be physical or emotional weight.