I Was Just Hungry
I was just hungry, that’s all.
I had a bit of trouble falling asleep last night and it reminded me of something that made me chuckle that I read a little while back while I was in Portland.
As of late, this is unusual for me (the falling asleep bit, not the remembering). I have had my bouts with insomnia, but it has been quite a long time since I have had the experience of thoughts placing nonsensical orders at 2am at the drive-thru window, so to speak.
I think the frequency of this happening to me comes down to one key ingredient, that I eventually nailed down as the cure: I need to eat.
It’s as simple as that. You’re hungry, dude. Yeah, it doesn’t matter if you’ve been lying in bed since 11pm and it’s now 2am. Get up and eat.
However, that doesn’t mean I am great at taking my own advice. Quite the contrary, I decide, it is too late to eat. Executive order. It was a decision you know, my decision: you don’t need food at this hour.
Meanwhile, 11pm becomes midnight, and midnight become 1am, and so forth. However, the resolution is right there, in my belly, urging and gurgling, pleading, revving my thoughts, impatiently while it waits for nourishment in the confines of my metaphorical drive-thru . It’s cold in my apartment, and I pull back the covers, frighten my cat who was nestled in the mass of blankets, and put on my sweatpants.
I eat a little something. I fall asleep. It’s magic: Criss Angel MindFreak at 2am. Every single time I get the racing thoughts in bed, it’s because I haven’t given my body enough nutrition that day. I get excited about what I’m working on, and forget to eat.
I woke up early this morning, regardless. I want to have a good day, so I decide to smile along with one of my favorite smile generators at the moment: Raymond M. Smullyan. He had this thought about sleeping. The nature of it, in a sense.
“A mathematician friend of mine recently told me of a mathematician friend of his who everyday “takes a nap”. Now, I never take naps. But I often fall asleep while reading—which is very different from deliberately taking a nap! I am far more like my dogs Peekaboo, Peekachoo and Trixie than like my mathematician friend once removed. These dogs never take naps; they merely fall asleep. They fall asleep wherever and whenever they choose (which, incidentally is most of the time!). Thus these dogs are true sages.
I think this is all that Chinese philosophy is really about; the rest is mere elaboration! If you can learn to fall asleep without taking a nap, then you too will become a Sage. But if you can’t, you will find it not as easy as you might think. It takes discipline! But discipline in the Eastern, not Western style. Eastern discipline enables you to fall asleep rather than take a nap; Western discipline has you do the reverse. Eastern discipline trains you to allow yourself to sleep when you are sleepy; Western discipline teaches you to force yourself to sleep whether you are sleepy or not. Had I been Laotse, I would have added the following maxim—which I think is the quintessence of Taoist philosophy:
The sage falls asleep not
Because he ought to
Nor even because he wants to
But because he is sleepy.”
I agree Raymond. However, I was also hungry—so may I offer my incrementally small contribution:
and not hungry.
WHO IS MIKE VITALE?
I am a storyteller, songwriter, singer, music producer, traveling musician, Jungian dream analyst, all-around curious fellow (Spiritual, Mathematical Historical, Scientific), Taoist, and much much more, based out of Los Angeles, California. I’m constantly releasing new music, in all sorts of different genres. You can listen to me below, on Spotify: