The Penumbra asked the Shadow,
saying, ‘Formerly you were walking on, and now you have stopped;
formerly you were sitting, and now you have risen up:
how is it that you are so without stability?’

The Shadow replied,
‘I wait for the movements of something else
to do what I do,
and that something else on which I wait
waits further on another to do as it does.

My waiting,
is it for the scales of a snake,
or the wings of a cicada?
How should I know why I do one thing,
or do not do another?

This is famous, passage of the Zhuangzi. The term penumbra is described as: An area of uncertainty or intermediacy between two mutually exclusive states or categories. Another way of putting it, – a luminal, in between state…

A shadow is asked to give an account of why is moves as it does… What can a shadow possibly say? A shadow is one hundred percent dependent upon a light source, and an object of which it is the negative (dark) representation. Without any independent status, is there any “why” to be given as an answer?

Moreover, what/who is asking the question? A penumbra could not be more indeterminate itself. Remember the old saying, of a pot that calls a kettle, black.

Waiting for what is also waiting…

There is no why.

So, why not?

Lighten up! Let us simply find enjoyment while we are here!

Now this song seems apt for the point. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – You Got Lucky. What of these post-apocalyptic images…  I have no idea. Just enjoy!