Welcome to the Vitallight, now here’s a little true history. This website is based on a concept and a poem given to us by a late literary legend known as Emily Dickinson.

Christopher Huff is the creator of this site, it is based on a poem by Emily Dickinson. One strange summer night during the dark hours of morning in 1997 it is said that Huff had an intimate encounter with the dead poet.

At the time he was twenty-five years old and he was caught up in an internal mid-twenties identity crises that had perpetuated many sleepless nights. On this particular night Huff was tucked away in a small hut in Lambert’s Cove, a quiet region on the island of Martha’s Vineyard just off the southeast coast of Massachusetts.

It was late July of 1997 there were approximately eight hundred and some odd days remaining in the decade. Huff in a slightly deranged state was kept up by his sleepless mind that had not been shut down for several days. His thoughts were scattered and random. He was consumed by confused thoughts.

During this time as well, others outside could tell, that young mister Huff was behaving rather strangely. He was exploring himself in a very destructive way in which he ultimately would crash. But before that happened, before it all happened. He saw Emily Dickinson’s vital light

The poem was numbered 883 in the 1955 Thomas Johnson collection. He picked up this collection under the candlelight during the dark hours of morning. The book opened to this page and he read the words intently.

It was very bizarre to Huff who’s brain immediately began calculating numbers beyond his control, soon he discovered the significance of this very number and it turned out that there were exactly 883 days remaining in the 1990’s, and the 20^th century. His heart began to pound faster than ever into a higher pace of life. It was a sign, an epiphany. From that moment on he started counting and calculating and having visions of the 883 days to come. How could he do it? How would it work? Not many were counting then.

He was mad in his head about the numbers and knew at any given time how many remained. People were concerned, confused, and disturbed by Huff’s thoughts, who had up to this point in his life, seemed like a normal guy; Slightly strange, yet normal. But at this particular crack in time he did not make any logical sense to anyone except himself.

Internally he interpreted one main idea from this poem. And it goes something like this:

"We are now entering a very transient and historic time. Life in America is very fast paced and prosperous, yet there seems to be darker tragedy among family and youth in the late 1990’s. School violence is brewing, and there are other elements that are sad. In order to combat these elements I will display a positive and peaceful aspect of America. I will be the poet that will ignite the light. It will be a light of brightness and goodness. There will be people that will think I am mad, and then there will be those that will unite with the idea. They will represent the stimulated Wicks in the poem. They will be Vital to the cause, and the idea will spread exponentially. "Each Age a Lens", that is us right now, and I will disseminate a positive vibration that will beam bright into our new age, a collection of America during a time of great change. If I believe it, people will believe. It is an exchange. It is the Vitallight."

As mentioned, during these early days of conception, people thought Huff was going crazy. It was a time before the tragedy of Princess Di, and the death of Mother Theresa. It was before the Lewinsky scandal came out. Times would get darker as the countdown began. Proving the need for Vitallight.

Huff was determined and possessed, and began the campaign from that day forward. He first sent word to friends and acquaintances from his past in the form of an artistic newsletter he named the Vitallight. This first list was a very modest 40 people. By the time of his great pilgrimage 783 days later, there were five editions of the Vitallight, he had gathered a following nationwide of more than 600 people on the mailing list.

He was counting down to Huff’s Hundred-Day Haul, a 100-day journey through the entire continental United States, displaying America at her best through photographs and the words of people from every state in the union. 28 days into the journey the Vitallight was broadcast live into cyberspace, and people worldwide kept close to his path as he meandered and spread the Vitallight.

To this day the Vitallight has never burned out, and the visitors are reaching 30,000. Strangers are friends here. This site is about positive vibration and entertainment. It is a lens of our age. It now has many new departments, and an entire category devoted to the legendary Huff’s Hundred-Day Haul, which in itself will continue evolve.

"You can blow out a candle,

But you can’t blow out a fire.

Once the flames begin to catch,

Emily still lives.