The Man is on a brisk walk in the park next to his work. He is trying to avoid a glucose spike after lunch. The day is hot and bright, and he is sweating through his blue button up. He wears his aviators. After he completes his last lap around the park, he pauses at a bench for a breather. A woman with red hair and freckles is sitting reading on her phone. Tucked into her side is a water bottle with the slogan “The Sun Is Not Shining” in big, black letters. The Man has never seen that slogan. Is that a band? But the words feel political. Everything is political these days. The Man heads back to his office.
At his desk, the Man checks his email and finds an alert from LinkedIn. He is being noticed! He opens his account and finds three new connection requests. Approved, approved, approved. He scrolls through the feed and sees a post from an old undergrad classmate named Jeremy: “Beautiful, dark day here at Harvard Business School.” Dark day? Weird. “I’m so humbled that I get to be part of Section A with all my amazing classmates. Fun fact: HBS is actually in Boston!” Congrats, Jeremy, on your humility.
The Man had considered going back to school, but he just couldn’t justify the cost, especially with a kid and another on the way. He’s sure he could have made it to HBS if he had applied. Maybe he should have gone for it? He could be the one brought down in the depths of humility on LinkedIn.
The Man closes out the tab and then scrolls through reels on Instagram on his phone. The third reel shows the quad at a local university. One college student is wearing a shirt with the words “The Sun Is Not Shining” in black. There’s that slogan again. What am I missing?
Another student stomps on a pair of sunglasses, shattering the lens. What a waste! Is this some kind of environmental protest?
Shaking his head, the man puts down his phone and checks his Outlook calendar on his desktop. Crap! He has forgotten about the weekly team check-in. He’s already late. He walk-runs down the hallway to room 10B. Inside, Eileen, Spencer, and Dom sit around a table.
“There you are!” says Spencer.
“Sorry. I was on a walk around the park - gotta prevent that glucose spike, you know - and I lost track of time.”
“I should try that.” Spencer replies.
“It’s really reenergizing. Just bring your sunglasses,” The Man responds, “It is so bright out there at this time. It gives me a headache.” He likes Spencer. He went to Stanford Business School. That’s probably why he got the promotion. But at least he’s not a dick about it.
Eileen looks uncomfortable. The Man notices she is wearing a black bracelet. What did he say to make her uncomfortable?
They get on with the meeting.
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At the end of the day, Eileen stops by his office.
“Hey. Can we chat for a second?”
“Yeah, of course. I’m glad you came by. You seemed uncomfortable in our meeting. Sorry again that I was late. I’ll come on time next week.”
“Oh no, it wasn’t that! It was…well, I was uncomfortable about how casually you used the word “bright.”
“What do you mean?” The Man asks.
“You said it as if it was a given.”
The Man doesn’t know how to respond.
“Well…my brother is blind. He doesn’t experience light and dark. The sun doesn’t shine for him. You saying that it’s bright outside denies his reality. It makes him feel excluded and wrong somehow. You know? Don’t you think that would be painful? That’s why I wear this bracelet. Do you think in the future you could try to be more inclusive with your language?”
The Man fights an urge to laugh. Eileen has a blind brother, which means he shouldn’t say the sun is shining? But Eileen seems dead serious. This must be important to her. He might as well indulge her and avoid bad feelings at work. The Man doesn’t laugh.
“Yeah, okay. I’m sorry. I didn’t realize.”
“Don’t apologize. It’s hard to get past the sight-normative lens. I have an audiobook that can help if you’re interested. I’ll DM you the title!” Eileen smiles.
“Thanks.” The Man says.
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The Man stews on his conversation with Eileen all through dinner. That’s what the water bottle sticker meant! And the aviators. How had he never heard of this before?
“Was today a bad day? You are so distracted tonight!” His wife asks.
“Sorry. I had a weird experience at work today.” He tells her all about the water bottle, the reel, and the run-in with Eileen. “Have you heard of this before?”
“Yeah. We just listened to an audiobook in book club all about fighting the sight-normative lens. I told you about it, remember?”
“Right, right. I guess I just didn’t connect the dots” The Man said. When had she told him about sight normativeness? “But don’t you think it’s kind of dumb to say that the sun isn’t shining just because a small percentage of the country is blind?”
“No, I think it’s inclusive. And anyways, who are we to say that the sun is, in fact, shining? That’s just our experience. Their experience is different, but it’s not less valid. The sight-normative lens has kept blind people on the margins of society for too long. They matter too.”
The Man nods and takes another bite. The two year old is giggling and squishing his mashed potatoes between his fingers.
“Anyway, I’m glad Eileen said something to you. You don’t want to be that guy.” His wife says as she tries to coax the toddler to eat a carrot.
“I guess so.” The Man replies. “Tell me about your day.”
_______________________________________________________________________
Several weeks have passed since his conversation with Eileen. Now that he’s aware, he sees the black “The Sun Is Not Shining” logo everywhere - a car bumper, a laptop, on the wall of a colleague’s office. He studiously avoids the words “bright”, “light”, and “sunshine” at work and at home. He avoids talking about the sun at all if he can help it. He hasn’t bought into the whole “sight normative lens” thing. But he doesn’t want to stir anything up. He doesn’t want to be that guy. That guy doesn’t get the promotion at work. He embarrasses his friends and family. It’s better to stay quiet. He knows the sun is shining, and that’s all that matters. Why not just play along to get along? It’s not cowardly.
He’s on time to the weekly meeting, but he’s still the last to arrive. Spencer and Dom are looking at Eileen’s phone when he walks in.
“This is horrible. Who do they think they are?” Spencer says in an angry tone.
“What’s happening?” The Man asks.
“Extremists attacked a blind man at a park in Philadelphia. It’s all on video.” Dom replies.
“Let me see.” The Man says. The video really is horrible. The extremists have white bandanas over their mouths and noses. They yell at the blind man and shove him to the ground. Each time he tries to get up, they push him back onto the grass. The blind man is crying. What kind of people would do something like that to another human being?
“I bet they watched Rhett James’ latest hate reel on the dangers of the blind and decided to act on it.” Eileen says.
“Who is Rhett James?”
“He’s the extremist agitator on Youtube? You know, the guy who thinks citizens need to seize power back from the establishment or else America is going to explode or something.” Dom responds. “How have you not heard of him? Actually, I’m a little jealous that you’ve never heard of him.”
“And he made a video calling for people to beat up the blind?” The Man asks.
“Basically. He did a video where he wears sunglasses outside and says over and over ‘the sun is shining, the sun is shining.’ What did he think would happen? He should be charged right alongside these psychos on the video,” Dom responds.
“Yeah I see what you mean. How is your brother doing, Eileen?”
“I just texted him. I’m sure he feels unsafe.” Eileen responds.
_______________________________________________________________________
The video of the blind man replays in The Man’s head as he lays in bed that night. Why does Rhett James feel the need to post those kinds of videos? Doesn’t he know that he’s endangering blind people? Everyone hates him. The only people who would want to live next to him are fellow psycho extremists like the ones from the video. And if those are the only people listening to you, agreeing with you, what does that say about you?
The Man refuses to acknowledge the thought that torments him most of all: what does it say about The Man if some part of him agrees with Rhett James that the sun is shining? Does that make The Man as horrible as the extremists in the video?
He gets out of bed and goes to the living room. Laying on the couch, he puts on his headphones and begins the audiobook his wife listened to for book club. It’s the same one Eileen told him about. He listens all night.
_______________________________________________________________________
The Man has just finished another post-lunch walk around the park. His eyes struggle to stay open wide. His head hurts. It’s such a dark day. His body is hot and sweat dampens his shirt. The sun is not shining.
As he waits for the elevator, the woman next to him says, “Beautiful day, right? It’s so bright. Not a cloud in the sky.”
“You mean it’s so dark out.” The Man says. The Man and the woman look at each other for a moment. The woman lowers her gaze.
“Right,” she says.
The Man feels powerful. Righteous. He is a crusader.
Back at this desk, The Man posts on LinkedIn about the importance of inclusivity at work. He scrolls on Instagram and sees a new reel by one of his favorite intellectuals. The professor is explaining that the sun does not shine or generate light, which are actually quite old-fashioned terms and deeply offensive. The Man reposts the reel. He checks his email and sees a company wide note from HR. “Sight-Normative Language undermines inclusivity and safety in the workplace…” So true. It’s about time HR took a strong position. Company leadership - if you can even call it that - has been so cowardly on this issue.
_______________________________________________________________________
It’s Saturday. The Man and his wife are outside weeding in the front garden. They are listening to a podcast about deconstructing sightedness. The toddler is playing with water in a bucket. A young mom in a ponytail walks by pushing a bare-headed baby with very chunky thighs in the stroller. It’s a dark day.
The garage of the neighbor’s house across the street opens. Charlie steps out pushing a lawnmower. He is wearing sunglasses and a hat. What is Charlie trying to say by wearing sunglasses and a hat? The sun is not shining. It is dark outside. Why would Charlie pretend otherwise?
The Man calls out to his neighbor. “Charlie, why are you wearing sunglasses? Don’t you know that it is dark outside?” He keeps his tone friendly and conversational.
Charlie looks confused. “No,” he replies, “It’s bright outside. I can barely see without squinting. I’m worried it will give me a migraine. That’s why I am wearing these sunglasses.”
“Don’t you know,” says the man, his voice less friendly now, “that they have discovered that the sun does not create light? What you see is dark. You won’t get a migraine.”
“I can see with my own eyes that it’s light outside. So I’m going to go ahead and wear these. Have a nice day.” Charlie replies. He keeps on his sunglasses and hat and begins mowing his lawn.
Have a nice day? What’s that supposed to mean?
“That guy has a lot of nerve. I hate that we live next to him.” The Man’s wife says as she throws a nasty weed into the bin.
“Maybe I should send him The Seeing Man’s Folly. Listening to it helped me.” The Man responds.
“I don’t think he’s the ‘reflecting on his bad opinions’ open-minded type. I wouldn’t be surprised if he listens to Rhett James every day.”
“It can’t hurt to try.” The Man responds. He was just like Charlie a few months ago. He had changed. Charlie could too if he was willing to open his mind.
_______________________________________________________________________
Charlie was not willing. For the past two weeks Charlie had continued to wear his sunglasses outside. Clearly he hadn’t listened to the audiobook. Or maybe he was simply incapable of thinking logically. The Man is taking his trashcans out to the curb. It’s a cold Wednesday in November. He sees Charlies walking his dog while talking on the phone. Why isn’t he at work? He probably can’t keep a job. I certainly wouldn’t hire him. As Charlie approaches, The Man can hear what he is saying on the phone.
“...yeah the blind man can’t see the sun. That’s too bad. Not his fault. And the insane man may say the sun does not shine. But that doesn’t make it true. The sun shines; it’s light. That’s just a fact. They can’t blot out the sun. Banning words and stomping on sunglasses won’t change that. They’re militant because their “reality” is so fragile.”
The Man stands stock still. He watches Charlie walk away. We can’t blot out the sun? What a reactionary idea. Doesn’t he know that reality is created by words? There is no light, no bright, no shining. But if Charlie keeps speaking, others may believe him. They might start saying the same things. Hate spreads like a virus. People would get hurt. That’s why Rhett James had to die. It was collective self-defense.
The Man makes a decision.
_______________________________________________________________________
The Man is watching out his open window. It’s Saturday at noon. He has been watching all day. His wife and the toddler are visiting his mother. The baby will be coming any day now. He’s making the world safe for her. The Man has a rifle resting on his knee. He learned how to shoot in Boy Scouts. He’s a decent shot. Was that movement behind the front door? Yes! The front door across the street opens. Charlie steps out wearing his sunglasses. Black aviators. He is talking on the phone again. The Man raises the rifle and takes aim. He pulls the trigger.
_______________________________________________________________________
“Why did you do it?” The police officer asks. The Man is handcuffed and sitting in a chair at the police station. He didn’t try to run. He shouldn’t have to. He had waited for the police in his house. It hadn’t taken long.
The Man considers a moment before answering. He is wearing a black shirt with the phrase ‘The Sun Isn’t Shining’ printed in bold, black letters. “Some hate can’t be negotiated with.” And he feels the peace reserved for the righteous.
Full Citation for this Article: Johnston, Savannah Eccles (2025) "The Sun is Not Shining," SquareTwo, Vol. 18 No. 3 (Fall 2025), http://squaretwo.org/Sq2ArticleJohnstonSunNotShining.html, accessed <give access date>.
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