The Obvious, Child

I woke up in the middle of the night last night and found it nearly impossible to go back to sleep. At my age, like Paul Simon said, I don't expect to sleep through the night, but I don't expect to lay awake for hours, either. For me, there's always a tipping point when I can tell that I might be up a while. It usually happens when specific things I mean to do both at home and at work start seeping into my consciousness. After that, all the meditation and relaxation breathing in the world won't let me drift off.

In our recent economic downtrend, I've often heard it said that one of the bright spots is an increase in worker productivity; companies are able to do much more with fewer employees. While that looks great on the balance book and sounds even better on the stump in this election year, I can't help wonder about the toll it's taking on the human beings involved in all that production. What is the objective?

This year, for the second in a row, my sixth grade students are participating in our own Slice of Life Challenge, and over the last four days, I've noticed a couple of bothersome trends in their posts. The first is boredom. So many of them write about being chronically bored. Ironically, the second is stress. They feel anxious and over-extended.

I don't think the two are unrelated. It's hard to feel engaged in anything with so much hanging over your head.

At least they're sleeping, though.