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Hi friends!
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I want to thank you for sticking with me on this newsletter journey. I know you have a lot of things that need your attention and I’m honored that you are a subscriber.
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Just use the password reasonsgreetings (no apostrophe) to access it!
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We are having a busy month, like many folks. We added three foster kittens to the mix which makes for a wonderful distraction. They are so excited about discovering everything and it’s easy to get caught up in their pure joy.
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This week, I’m mailing out secular-themed luminaries to some folks in the secular community that I worked with this year. I designed the luminaries to tell the story of the scientific discoveries of light - from early Greek beliefs that light came from our eyes to the modern view of light as photons and the particle-wave duality.
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I’ve also developed the luminary as a craft kit using tissue paper to create a stained glass look. I've already sent it to Camp Quest for consideration.
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In 2026, I want to connect with more secular organizations. I’d be grateful if you shared my newsletter with someone else in the secular community.
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I'm also continuing my revision of Christmas for Atheists as a book for families, and I'm looking for people to interview about their secular Christmas traditions. If you'd be willing to share yours, just reply to this email.
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When I designed this luminary, I wanted to capture something beautiful about being human: our curiosity, our persistence, and how we build knowledge together across generations.
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This is the story of light—but it's really a story about us.
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Early humans believed light shot from our eyes like tiny beams, illuminating everything we saw. Then scientists observed light traveling to us in waves, discovering how prisms could break those waves into rainbows of color. But waves didn't explain everything. Scientists also explored light as particles that could travel in all directions from a source.
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Turns out, both were right. Today we understand light's duality—it behaves as both wave and particle, in tiny packets of energy called photons.
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As Isaac Newton said, "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."
No single person discovered light. We learned together, over centuries, building on each other's work.
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This four-sided cardstock and vellum luminary celebrates that journey—each panel representing a step in our collective understanding. It's perfect for HumanLight, winter solstice, or any secular celebration of human achievement and the natural world.
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I also created a craft kit variation with colored tissue paper to create your own stained glass effect!
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$5.00
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Make sure you don't miss an email. Please add betsy@betsydeville.com to your Contacts, and mark this email as Important, it will keep it from floating off into cyberspace!
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Do you know someone who would enjoy this newsletter? Sharing is caring!
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