Wednesday, November 02, 2005

The Theme, Re-Visited

Today was our tenth day without electricity. Previous to the hurricane, I had a blog entry on Read - Think - Live every single day for 42 days. I've written something every day for the last 10 days, ink on paper--it's more effort, much harder to make it sound intelligent because I can't edit without re-writing.

Tonight, about 15 minutes ago, I reached a point where inertia overtook momentum, and I thought, I really don't have anything to say and I'm going to give up on writing anything at all until we get our power back.

But I guess I got a second wind, and here I am.

The theme of Read - Think - Live is that my life is largely literary/intellectual. But without electric lights or refrigeration or a washing machine or a stove or oven or hot water, life becomes a little more bound to the physical. I have to spend more time tending to necessary tasks, keeping clean and finding food. The prevailing darkness encourages us to go to sleep early. That has meant more complex dreams, but less reading time. All our routines are disturbed, and at the same time I have changes and stress at work. I'm tired, but I'm getting stronger.

"Fresh Air" with Teri Gross is on NPR at 8 p.m. My new routine is to climb in bed around 8 and listen with my headphones until I fall asleep.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Speaking of sleeping longer, and dreams.

I've always been interested in my, and other people's, dreams. Two days in a row I went to bed early, after working steadily in ceramics all day, and slept in to about 10 am. I had these long, epic, coherent dreams. Shorter sleep times, and going to bed with work still to be done, or stress, just doesn't get those kinds of dreams. It's something to look forward to Monday and Tuesday than, I suppose.

Alice