Sleep
Do you know the story in the Bible when some children were making fun of a prophet for being old (Bald) and two bears came out of the woods and mauled the children? Well I find that story terribly troubling as a grown-up, but it was a serious rejoinder occasionally trotted out when I was a youngster in church that we should never despise the wisdom nor age of your elders.
And honestly, if anyone could have used a silencing bear in this story, it is foolish young Andy (yours truly, repentant for his jibe).
Happily my friends teased me about this ridiculous thing that I had said enough so that I can still remember it now that I am old and indeed...I discover that sleep is one of the great gifts that the universe has given us.
A sacred gift even.
This photograph is something that I made while playing with the pairing of a pair of inverted binoculars and my camera. I love the distortion and ephemeral quality that this pairing can sometimes produce and this picture is one of my favorites that I ever produced. I actually don't know if she is napping in this picture or just resting after hard work or feeling the weight of parenting adolescents or the disappointments of midlife, but the truth of the picture for me is found not just in the content but especially in the form it takes.
The bleary, unstable quality reminds me precisely of how it feels both when you're overwhelmed with darkness and of when you're slowly sinking into an inevitable sleep.
And the irony is that the sleep you will heal you (somewhat).
What an incredibly mysterious and yet basic (in the best sense) part of being alive! The rejuvenation of sleep.
I know am happy to forego a conversation, a fun night out, a movie I know I'll love in favor of getting to sleep early. Because sleep is just that good.
Comments