How Do You Sleep At Night?

I don't know about you, Bush, but I'm finding it harder and harder to put in a good night's sleep. I find myself waking earlier and earlier each morning, my head already filled with lists of things undone and lists of things to do. This morning I woke at four-thirty with the startled realization that this is Thursday already, today, the first of the two days I had booked for our Byron--our jack-of-all-trades--to come with half his family to help us move. And while we're ready to go at this end, with stacks of boxes sitting around awaiting transportation, there's no place yet to put them at the new house. It's still a mess of construction dust and debris, with all the various trades still working there: painters, carpenters, tilers, plumbers, plasterers--they're all there, just barely avoiding tripping over each other. Bottom line: nowhere to put the boxes, nowhere to put the clothes hangers, nowhere to put the computer and the printer and the fax machine... So what to do with Byron? Then tomorrow the cable people and the telephone company are scheduled, at the new place, to install their lines...

Anyway, Bush, you can understand it feels like I have a lot on my plate, and I wake earlier each morning, and each morning with a longer list of things to worry about. So I can hardly begin to imagine how it feels for you, with the bombings escalating in Iraq, and the problems with those sudden changes in the referendum rules, and the British announcing that their soldiers are being blown to bits with weapons supplied directly by Iran, and Iran (really, it seems!) building weapons of mass destruction, and Kim Jong Il still building his, and more bombings in Bali, and Russia getting restless, and half the countries in Africa going to hell in a handbasket with half their people starving, or fighting, or suffering from dreaful diseases, and Europe in uproar, and the Israelis and Palestinians still at each others' throats, and the ice cap melting, and hurricanes hitting us left, right and center, and the fire season on us, and most of the world hating our guts... Not to mention the polls!

So how do you sleep at night? That's what I'm wondering. Or do you wake up at four in the morning, like I do, with your head full of lists? I guess maybe you hire people to wake up with their heads full of lists for you, so that you can get a good night's sleep with Laura in the Lincoln Bedroom. That must be it.

As for me, I have two life-savers, Bush. The first is my meditation practice, which I've been doing for years now. A half hour, at least. And I manage it almost every day. I miss maybe once a month, once in two weeks. It's not easy, with the head so busy with all its thoughts and worries, but it's essential. A great discipline. And it keeps me sane. The other life-saver--and you may be surprised to hear this, Bush, is this daily journal. If it weren't for us sitting down together (almost) every morning and scribbling these notes, I don't think I'd get any writing done at all. And that would drive me crazy.

So here's a word of thanks, Bush, for helping to keep me at it. I wish I could get you to meditate instead of all that praying to Jesus that you do, but that's probably expecting too much. Failing that, we always have The Bush Diaries. No?