Oh my God...I'm a modern-day Rip Van Winkle, I thought to myself as I woke up the other afternoon and looked at the clock on my night table. The red digital light flashed 3:11 p.m. -- a new record for me.
I had already missed half of the day.
It should be explained, however, that I did not hit the hay until 3:30 that morning. Being the night owl that I am, I had lost track of time while working at my computer in the wee small hours of the morning. But no matter how you look at it, 11+ hours is still a pretty good night's/day's sleep. Guess I needed it!
In truth, when I first woke up during that marathon stretch of slumber it was just past 8 a.m. Matilda was still snoring beside me and I thought "what the heck", rolled over and went back to sleep. Four hours later (roughly noon), I awoke again and thought "I'll just lay here for a few minutes before I get up."
Those "few minutes" somehow stretched into another unbelievable three hours. Miraculously, Matilda had not moved a muscle and I marvelled at how our bladders had held out that long.
As I sat at the kitchen table peeling an orange while the coffee percolated, I found myself taking stock of the things that I may have missed during that extended sleep. To my relief, I could not think of a single thing...Nothing important anyway. That's the upside, I guess, of living a single life with no particular commitments or responsibilities. The world keeps on rolling whether I'm in it or not.
That is also where my earlier spontaneous comparison to Rip Van Wrinkle ended. Countless changes took place in Rip's world during his 20-year sleep, and by golly that's the hidden message in that old yarn.
I had already missed half of the day.
It should be explained, however, that I did not hit the hay until 3:30 that morning. Being the night owl that I am, I had lost track of time while working at my computer in the wee small hours of the morning. But no matter how you look at it, 11+ hours is still a pretty good night's/day's sleep. Guess I needed it!
In truth, when I first woke up during that marathon stretch of slumber it was just past 8 a.m. Matilda was still snoring beside me and I thought "what the heck", rolled over and went back to sleep. Four hours later (roughly noon), I awoke again and thought "I'll just lay here for a few minutes before I get up."
Those "few minutes" somehow stretched into another unbelievable three hours. Miraculously, Matilda had not moved a muscle and I marvelled at how our bladders had held out that long.
As I sat at the kitchen table peeling an orange while the coffee percolated, I found myself taking stock of the things that I may have missed during that extended sleep. To my relief, I could not think of a single thing...Nothing important anyway. That's the upside, I guess, of living a single life with no particular commitments or responsibilities. The world keeps on rolling whether I'm in it or not.
That is also where my earlier spontaneous comparison to Rip Van Wrinkle ended. Countless changes took place in Rip's world during his 20-year sleep, and by golly that's the hidden message in that old yarn.
The story "Rip Van Winkle" by Washington Irving is set in the mid-1700s, before the American Revolution in an unnamed village in the Catskill Mountains of New York. It is a tale that has fascinated me since early childhood.
The story could mean many things to different people. One might read it and think about a certain lesson, while another reads it and comes up with a totally different meaning and lesson. But a common moral most readers find in 'Rip Van Winkle' is the that time goes on and things keep changing, whether a person is conscious or not. In the story, Rip takes a 20-year nap, but time does not stop--the world keeps changing around him. Even though Rip is not aware of all of the changes going on, they still happen.
When he awakes, Rip finds that there are some changes that he likes. For example, he no longer has to answer to his wife (because she has died) and he does not have the same responsibilities and burdens that he used to. However, there are also some changes that he does not like, such as his dog getting older and his children growing up. Even though Rip was upset that he missed a lot of important events, the moral of the story is that time does not wait--the world will keep moving forward and changing whether we are ready or not...With us, or without us.
The story could mean many things to different people. One might read it and think about a certain lesson, while another reads it and comes up with a totally different meaning and lesson. But a common moral most readers find in 'Rip Van Winkle' is the that time goes on and things keep changing, whether a person is conscious or not. In the story, Rip takes a 20-year nap, but time does not stop--the world keeps changing around him. Even though Rip is not aware of all of the changes going on, they still happen.
When he awakes, Rip finds that there are some changes that he likes. For example, he no longer has to answer to his wife (because she has died) and he does not have the same responsibilities and burdens that he used to. However, there are also some changes that he does not like, such as his dog getting older and his children growing up. Even though Rip was upset that he missed a lot of important events, the moral of the story is that time does not wait--the world will keep moving forward and changing whether we are ready or not...With us, or without us.
No comments:
Post a Comment