The Wee Small Hours
The world is fast asleep and yet there you are...awake, and perhaps for no other reason than to enjoy a few moments of absolute peace. The crickets outside murmur a low hum which can barely be heard through the open window cracked ever-so-slightly allowing the cool, evening breeze to wisp inside as you curl your feet under your legs, Indian style, wrapping the rest of you in a fur blanket, turning the floor heater on low and pulling your macbook close in anticipation for genius to strike at any moment...as it normally does about this time.
For some, the wee small hours are a time of utterly-painful memories as they reach for a loved one who once lay beside them with a gentle body heat radiating a sigh as the two crept closer in the mid winter chill, but that side of the bed has since grown cold as their loved one of many years has passed leaving tears of joy, heart-ache, and emptiness. But, for others, these precious few moments come with a whirlwind of ideas for their next art project, millian-dollar start-up, or infamous, blog post. The family is fast asleep, the fridge just kicked off, and all that remains are the crickets just a few feet away and a hurricane of ideas waiting to be caught by those patient enough to wait for them. You crack your knuckles, sharpen the number 2 writing instrument with the 7" chef's knife until it screams uncle, power up your iPad and caress the edges until the first idea rears its beautiful head from the muck and the mire of a long, strenuous day filled with noise and distraction.
Artists seem to function best at night, do they not? Or perhaps early in the morning, but that of course is after a long night of vinyl and incense to kindle the creative juices from their dull, charcoal-like slumber and awaken the fire which went dormant mid-day. Have you found yourself at a road block? Do your friends have to bring you back from the white screen of death or crippling pressure of a blank canvas with a few hand waves or smelling salts under the nose? May I recommend searching for your muse at a different time of the day? Some folks seem to strike the proverbial gold after a good nights rest and their favorite cup of Joe early in the morning. Again, it's quiet. The hustle and bustle of the day has yet to hit the ground running. Most households are still in dreamland and after the sleep you may not be so encumbered by the day's activity, work, etc that your energy is drained and by 8pm you can barely stay awake long enough to make fun of the spoiled brat trying to carry a tune as the next American Idol, and would otherwise not even had made the journey if he hadn't been lied to all their life by their biased mother causing the tone def child to simultaneously be delusional and entitled.
Still, there are many who by 10pm are just getting their second wind and suddenly they are ready to go another 5 or 6 hours on the cuspin of the adrenaline rush that comes with the prospect of a sharply written paragraph, business plan, or sketch of the best ever leather bomber jacket. While artists and designers should never discount the difficulty and sacrifices made which come from weeks and weeks of life invested into numbers and projects in a closed board room producing valuable data from which companies, cities, and nations are built. Likewise, can we offer the same grace to those who sit in coffee houses, lofts and city parks who pour over white paper and blank canvases creating, promoting, writing, drawing, sketching, coloring, folding, erasing, thinking, singing, praying, believing, dreaming, and doing? It is probably a good thing to keep in mind that the same space created for those who sing, dream, and dance was also designed for others who crunch, calculate, and build, but...then again...that's just my humble opinion.