In the Midnight Hour

Nights are tough for many of us, perhaps more so as we get older. Thoughts, memories, sound bytes, concerns about loved ones, concerns about loved ones that never were, financial unease to put it mildly, all coming to a crescendo precisely when all you want is a bit of rest.

For me, the disturbance often takes the form of figuring out the sequences for the next day’s cooking orders. Perhaps I have a brisket that will monopolize the oven for the better part of the day. OK, how to work around that when I also have a big order of vegan baked beans that also needs about 3 hours of love? And so it goes. The solution, you might think, would be to simply write down the sequence before heading to bed. Which does work, to a certain degree. Until you begin to run through the sequence in your head, thinking about whether that sequence is the most effective one or wondering how you might improve upon it.

I guess there are a lot worse things to lose sleep over. In fact, I’m beginning to believe that this relatively benign set of logistics serves as a cover crop for the more existential challenges lurking within.