Sleeping Is Best

Sometimes I worry that I'll go to bed and wake up to a world drastically changed. That I'll stumble downstairs bleary-eyed one afternoon and ask "hey, what's up?" only for my mother to point one pale, shaking finger at the television. That I'll look over to see a news anchor talking hurriedly and big bold letters under her saying "NUCLEAR BOMBS STRIKE NEW YORK, LOS ANGELES, CHICAGO"

I did it once. When I was 11, I overslept one morning. Woke up at 9:00 AM, totally late for school. I came down absolutely sure I'd be in huge trouble. Grounded for a week, at least. But my dad was glued to the TV, he wouldn't acknowledge me even when I stood next to him and tried to get his attention.

The moment I looked at the screen that morning was the first time I saw Osama bin Laden.

Things can change so quickly. I don't know why it matters to me that I be awake for it. It's not like I can stop it all. In fact, if something truly terrible happened, I think it would be better to be asleep. If society ever collapsed, I'd rather sleep through it than experience the horrors first-hand. I'd rather live in a dream state forever, where my life of comfort continues on indefinitely, than deal with a large-scale collapse of the infrastructure that makes that life of comfort possible. If there's ever a nuclear war, I hope I never wake up.