Let There Be Dark

Hmmmm.....Maybe this wasn't such a great idea...

Did you wake up in the dark this morning? I did, and all the schoolkids in our town did, and everyone who's headed for work woke up to blackness outside. Whose idea was that? Thomas Edison, that's who. He might have been a genius, but his light bulb was a bad idea.

It started simply enough. One day as a youth, Tom dressed as usual in the dark, grabbed a Pop Tart and headed for school. About halfway through arithmetic class, the sun rose and all the kids saw that Tom had put on two different colored shoes that morning. They laughed and laughed, and Tom was mortified and swore, "Someday when I'm grown up, I'll invent a glass bulb that glows, and this will never happen again!"

So he did, and that meant we could stay up all night, work all night, print newspapers at night, and most importantly, we could read books about Edison at night. We can thank him for traffic lights, and computer monitors and TV screens. He pioneered the lava lamp, the headlight on my vacuum cleaner, and the coffee indicator light. As a matter of fact, he's responsible for the coffee industry. Without his infernal light, we'd still be asleep, not trying to jar ourselves awake with smashed South American beans.

Nocturnal animals show wear and tear.

People need lots of sleep. The light bulb and all the things it enabled have stolen our sleep time. If it were not for this invention, we'd be hitting the sack when it gets dark and staying there until we can tell our shoes apart.

There are some animals who thrive in the dark, but humans are not among them. Humans, like most animals, should sleep when it's dark and wake when it's light. That makes for long winter naps. What could be better?

You're not overworked, you're underslept. Tell your boss today that you cannot arise until the sun does, and that you must be home by dark.
To make your point, wear unmatched shoes.