Postcard of Rice's Pleasant View Motor Court, Paoli, Indiana
By the time one becomes a certified adult, attitudes and arguments about what’s “good for you” are pretty much decided. Habits become unconscious, preferences settle in. The epic question posed to Brando in “The Wild One” aka “What are you rebelling against, Johnny?” fit like a pair of high school jeans. Maybe a few harsh judgments with regard to say, liver and onions or Gilbert and Sullivan, are reduced to time served; but mostly it’s just a growing desire for the predictable and the reliable.
I would guess that most individuals have their sleep clocks largely set by age 30. After all, the recommended daily allowance of 7 to 9 hours doesn’t change much after adolescence. So taking this math a little further, it would appear very few of us rise in the wee small hours on any regular basis.
Setting aside insomnia, those who seriously commit to this schedule generally find a big incentive in the obvious: Not too many other human beings are active between the hours of 4:00 and 5:00 AM, so the lights are lower, mechanized noise greatly reduced. It’s before the birds even.
Monastics and meditators have been trading on this frontier for centuries. Much more raw space is available and so, strangely, you have a far less incentive to fill it up.
It’s been said that all discipline is essentially remembering what you really want. So it makes sense perhaps that lives driven by a desire for a deep spiritual, natural, or physical connection are drawn to rising before dawn. Included here are pursuits as varied as Olympic athletes, dairy farmers, and cloistered nuns.
My curiosity has its limits, but I can certainly see how this practice would get your full attention really fast. The moment you open your eyes to start the day at 4:15 a.m., you would remember instantly why. And with no one else around to explain it to or argue with, this choice would very quickly be all about you. Which coincidentally, is the other thing that discipline will help you to remember.
Song, Artist, Album
Early In The Morning, Nilsson, Nilsson Schmilsson
Early In The Morning, Ray Charles, Birth Of The Soul
Gotta Get Up, Nilsson, Nilsson Schmilsson
Mother Nature’s Son, Beatles, White Album
Here Comes The Sun, Richie Havens, Original 45 Mix
G’Morning, Ronnie Lane’s Slim Chance, One For The Road
Start Me Up, Rolling Stones, Tattoo You
From The Morning, Nick Drake, Pink Moon
When The Blue Of The Night, Loudon Wainwright III, Boardwalk
Meet Me In The Morning, Bob Dylan, Blood On The Tracks
I’m Gonna Be Strong, Gene Pitney, It Hurts To Be In Love
Just A Little Lovin’, Dusty Springfield, Dusty In Memphis
In The Wee Small Hours, Frank Sinatra, In The Wee Small Hours
