last year when I returned to Durham after Christmas, I found a 9 x 12 manila envelope containing a paper with this title page:
“Gestures Toward
A Theology of Sleep
in honor of
Stephanie Gehring
OR:
Rest and Unrest: Meditations, Insights, and Good Old-Fashioned Bullshit to Dwell on Late at Night
OR:
This Is What Happens when Your Friends Are Nerds
By
Russell Johnson
Lindsay Eierman
Lauren Greenspan
*perhaps others who wish to remain anonymous*”
I have decided to share this paper with the world, in installments. This is for insomniacs, people who like to sleep, people who like to be awake, and everyone who loves to laugh and think deep thoughts. Here’s point one:
“1. When you take a step back from sleep, you see its contingency, or better, its gratuity. Like mountains, the moon, and red pandas (and unlike eyes, laughter, and death) it is very easy to imagine a world in which sleep did not exist. “It would be exactly like it is now, except 24/7,” we initially think, “After all, I have pulled an all-nighter or two, and I could imagine everyone doing that every night.” I think the differences between this world and the world without sleep– without even the concept of sleep– would be massive. Sleep is like punctuation marks for our lives. Our nightly rests are periods, naps are commas, and we all experience the occasional ellipsis. Without breaks and pauses, life would be much less intelligible. In a world without sleep, poetry would be erratic– the fluidity would collapse in on itself. In a world without sleep, liturgy would be unsure of itself. And, of course, in a world without sleep, raising a child would be impossible.”