Of That Tribe

Recently, I've been reading Now Let Us Praise Famous Men by James Agee. In it I've found a wonderful description that sums up my relationship with sleep:

"[She] is of that tribe who by glandular arrangement seem to exhaust rather than renew themselves with sleep, and to whom the act of getting up is almost unendurably painful."

What a way to say that someone is not a morning person.

I find comfort in knowing not that there was ever one other woman out there who did not feel rested by sleep, but that Agee believes there is a whole tribe of folks who find it difficult to wake up.

I like to think of it as the difference between static and kinetic energy. It takes much more energy to get me going, but once I'm moving, I don't want to stop. If I'm awake, I don't want to go to sleep. If I'm asleep, I don't want to awaken.

And so, I've been getting a lot of work done at night, when I feel like I'm skidding along like a wooden block in physics class . . . and there's very little friction. With the whole world asleep, there's nothing to stop me from going and going. Nothing but the prospect of dawn. And the guilt of knowing I'll miss another morning.