Now, near the Winter Solstice, it is good to light candles. All the nice meanings of bringing light to the world can be beautiful. But perhaps we are concentrating on lighting the world because we don't know how to light up our own lives.

Levy juxtaposes a familiar seasonal ritual—lighting candles around the winter solstice—with a psychological and ethical challenge. Candles traditionally symbolize hope, renewal, and the return of light in the darkest part of the year; the quote acknowledges the beauty of that outward-facing symbolism. The turn (“But perhaps…”) reframes the practice as potentially compensatory: public gestures of illumination and benevolence may mask an inability to cultivate inner clarity, joy, or purpose. The line invites introspection about motives—whether our desire to ‘bring light’ is grounded in genuine abundance or in unaddressed personal darkness—and suggests that lasting generosity may require learning to ‘light up’ one’s own life first.