Illumination

From the moment “Let there be light” was intoned in the great script of life, sunshine has warmed, nurtured, set the tone and shone the way. Humankind then found its own ways to brighten the world, as well. At a Hollywood auction house, the glow surrounding a fossilized palm frond evokes the primordial Earth, while the modern world gleams in a movie projector’s beam. Belief burns bright at the celebration of a Guatemalan feast day in downtown Los Angeles, and in a different way, it illuminates a stunt by a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey performer. In Laguna Beach, hikers head into the sunset as light--and life--continue in their eternal cycles.