the back burner

redefining trivial

I was reminded today that there are far worse things than being tired. I mean, so many good conversations and schemes and plans fit into my waking hours that I find it a shame to cut them off for something as trivial as sleep. My psychology-minded friends dispair at the fact that I place sleep in the "trivial" category. I tell them to pray for me.

Tonight I got to spend some time with some people who were smoking a nargile. (Let's go ahead and assume I'm not spelling that correctly.) It's a Turkish word for "water pipe." The heat from the coal travels down through wet, flavored tobacco through a long pipe that ends in a jar of water. Via the hose, you suck the smoky air through the water (natural filter) into your lungs.

Well, these people just laid a blanket down in the park, brought out this elaborate jar-pipe-hose-bowl-coal contraption, and sat down for three hours to smoke and chat and think. This sort of thing, in terms of broad categories of experience, does not often occur. Not in my life, anyway.

Ok, so you're thinking sleep and water pipes don't really go together. Well, I could have been sleeping. I could be sleeping now. Somehow, the adventure was important and the sleeping is trivial. But I also want to say that all the things I do tomorrow will be important, so maybe I should sleep now? I'll think about it. Coming soon: putting people in jars.