Every night I wake up at 1, 2, or 3 a.m. and can't go back to sleep until I've had something to eat, edited my nightly essay, and published here at Facebook.
It has become an established routine that I am reluctant to mess with, even though it tends to complicate life during the regular hours when people expect me to be alert.
Some nights my 12-year-old grandson gets up also, and brings his comforter out to the couch, where he reads for a while before going back to bed. Usually we don't talk much -- we understand each other's rhythms -- but one night recently he was in a chatty mood.
He said that when he has trouble sleeping it's because his mind begins churning in ways he can't turn off. What he thinks about is the future, often fantastic thoughts about the future that probably won't come true, although he's not sure about that.
As I listened, it occurred to me that although we are at opposite ends of a spectrum of life, in certain ways we are similar. He is his father's only son; I was my father's only son. He has long blond hair; I have long white hair. Both of us have had childhoods where people never stopped saying that we were *so* smart, (BTW, to a kid, that does not feel like a compliment.)
He told me he learns most of what he knows not from school, but on his own or from his friends. He said he heard of a kid who was so smart they sent him to Harvard at age seven. I told him I'd hate to be that kid because I'd be way too small to go out with any of the girls.
Compared to him, I've lived six lifetimes. When I'm awake and restless I think about the past, as opposed to the future. His dreams lie ahead in life, mine probably passed me by some time ago.
On this particular occasion, however, something new happened. After he got a snack and went back to bed, I went back to my room and fell asleep by imagining something new:
Dreams of a future.
***
The news of today:
* Congressional leaders add stimulus checks to relief bill as they near a deal (WashPo)
* Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, congratulated President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. and pleaded with Republicans privately not to join an effort by House members to throw out the results. (NYT)
* Trump lashes out at McConnell for recognizing Biden’s victory: ‘People are angry!’ (WashPo)
* The United States expanded its rollout of the newly approved COVID-19 vaccine to hundreds of additional distribution centers, inoculating thousands more health care workers in a mass immunization expected to reach the general public in the coming months. Political leaders and medical authorities have launched a media blitz avowing the safety of the vaccines while urging Americans to maintain social distancing and mask-wearing. [Reuters]
* California Attorney General Xavier Becerra sued Amazon in an effort to get it to comply with a state Covid-19 safety investigation. [CalMatters]
* U.S. retail sales declined in November amid a surge in coronavirus cases and new business restrictions in some states. (WSJ)
* Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s coronavirus restrictions sent migrant workers fleeing. To get them home, the government offered special trains. But the trains would spread the virus across the country. (NYT)
* Trump is considering pushing to have a special counsel appointed to advance a federal tax investigation into Hunter Biden, setting up a potential showdown with incoming acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen. Trump has consulted on the matter with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, White House counsel Pat Cipollone and outside allies. [AP]
* MLB Retrospectively Elevates Negro Leagues to Major League Status (WSJ)
* As the number of women in U.S. jails has risen, so have deaths and medical errors in facilities ill-equipped to handle this growing population. (Reuters)
* The U.S., Britain, Canada and others are hedging their bets, reserving vaccine doses that far outnumber their populations, as many poorer nations struggle to secure enough. (NYT)
* With three weeks left before polls close in two U.S. Senate runoff elections in Georgia that will determine the balance of power in Washington, a record number of early voters cast their ballots in person in multiple counties. Election officials in Richmond County, which includes Augusta, said one of the county’s major voting centers recorded 2,022 in-person voters by 5 p.m. on Monday, marking a single-day record for early voting. [HuffPost]
* Hopeful sign: Midwestern states see drop in new virus cases (AP)
* Supreme Court to Hear NCAA Case on Student-Athlete Compensation (WSJ)
* Mar-a-Lago neighbors to Trump: Spend your post-presidency elsewhere. (WashPo)
* Bingo Much Less Competitive Lately (The Onion)
***
Tiptoes to my room every night
Just to sprinkle stardust and to whisper
Go to sleep, everything is alright
Into the magic night, I softly say
A silent prayer like dreamers do
Then I fall asleep to dream my dreams of you
In dreams I talk to you
In dreams you're mine all of the time
We're together in dreams, in dreams
I awake and find you gone
I can't help it
I can't help it
If I cry
I remember that you said goodbye
Can only happen in my dreams
Only in dreams
In beautiful dreams
-- Songwriter: Boudleaux Bryant
-30-
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