Darkness

Darkness has a lot of negative connotations (your line: "umm...duh!").  A lot of that, I think, stems from the intrinsic fear of the unknown.  Darkness is a master of disguise, hiding everything from our sight as it falls slowly over the world.  Even entirely rational people find themselves checking behind them, or paranoically (yeah, that's a word.  Merriam-Webster says so; therefore it is so) glancing around, squinting in a futile attempt to make out the source of a tiny sound. It comes as little surprise, then, that darkness is one of the things people most fear.  
And this time of year, darkness is more inescapable than ever.  According to Linux ( :-) ), the sunset today was at 4:30.  Far too early.  Not nearly enough daylight hours to actually do everything I want to do.  And with sunrise not until 6:45 AM, I'm spending most of the hours I'm not busy in the dark.  
However, at the same time, darkness can be pleasant.  Darkness and the cold of winter also herald the entry of heavy blankets, which make curling up in bed all the more comfortable.  It also makes for excellent stargazing.  When the moon isn't out and you can get a little ways away from light pollution, the stars are absolutely beautiful.  Bright and clear (very little moisture in the air to blur the light we get from the stars).  Simply marvelous.  I can't help but feel dwarfed by the massive scale of the universe, and somehow, I find that very comforting.  No matter how many mistakes I make, or the world makes, or dumb politicians in general make, the stars will continue on their way.  They don't know or care about our problems; gravity reaches that far, but only very weakly.  It's nice to know that there will always be some constant around us, an anchor amidst the turmoil of everyday life.