
It is vital to remind ourselves, from time to time, of two complementary sides of the one coin of our experience. On one side is the realm of what’s so: the facts, the objectively real, that which is publicly and measurably true. Let’s call this side of reality our day experience. We talk or write about it using day language – that is, normal everyday discourse. The other side of our experiential coin I call night experience. It is communicated through night language, by way of grand metaphors, poetry, and vibrant images. Our attention is focused on What does it mean? This side of our experience is subjectively real, like a nighttime dream, though not objectively real. Night language is personally or culturally meaningful. It nourishes us with spectacular images of emotional truth.
Dowd, Michael, Thank God for Evolution, p. 113-4