I continue to read the eighty-one steps of the Tao each morning, and yesterday, I read a definition of enlightenment I had never heard before. It was about bringing darkness to the light, and in that way, we become enlightened—full of light. Full of light! So simple. And yet previously misunderstood. We are enlightened when we know others as well as ourselves. And knowledge of self includes not only light but also darkness. I love it when things I have never previously seen or heard suddenly become obvious.

Jorge Pardo makes lights that are both sculptural and functional. They are aesthetic and utilitarian. They have form and function when they are illuminated, as well as when they are in darkness. They are both/and. There is a space between being and doing, a middle way, a space where the static stops, and we are perfectly suspended in grace.

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