What keeps me up at night is fear that the sky is falling. That, and the hoot of the barred owl with his whocooks, whocooksforyouall just as I’m beginning to fall asleep, just as I’m putting the peepers out of my mind. Don’t get me started on those peepers!
Otherwise, if it ain’t the barred owl, it’s the coyote, especially in mating season, when one howl sounds like a dozen, yip, yip, woo, woo, woo, awooooo, yip, yip, woo, woo, awooooo. Like that. A real sleep depriving cacophony. And, those peepers! You do know what they are, don’t you…the peepers?
But, mostly it’s the fear of the sky falling. Not of the moon falling, mind you. I don’t think that the moon can fall to the earth. I think that, if the moon felt like falling, if it just let go of its mooring, for example, then, instead of falling, it would just float away like a balloon to who knows where, maybe to Mars or to Jupiter.
So, I don’t fear the moon tumbling out of the sky when I try to fall asleep at night. Although, if the moon did lose its tethers and float away, then I would be afraid that it might not come back, and that would keep me awake all night. I’d be perseverating.
Anyway, think about it for a minute. Wouldn’t fear of the sky falling keep you up all night? I mean, how would you get away? Where could you hide? I can’t think of anything more frightening than the unavoidable, inescapable falling of the sky, and that’s why it keeps me awake at night. Most nights, anyway. Otherwise, it’s the peepers.
Now don’t be confused. I’m not talking about falling stars here either. Falling stars don’t keep me up at night. I’m not afraid of falling stars. I even sleep outside during the Perseid showers. I like them. I have a fallen star that my kids gave me one year for father’s day. I keep it in my pocket to save for a rainy day.
Nor do I fear the possibility of clouds falling. Even if a cloud did fall, it wouldn’t hurt or anything. Clouds are soft and fluffy, and they tickle, but they don’t hurt. Even if a cloud falls and hits you smack dab on the top of your head when you’re not wearing a hat, it wouldn’t hurt. It may mess up your hair, if you combed it, but I don’t have that problem.
So, it’s the peepers and the fear of the sky falling that keep me awake at night. I lay there at night, under my red, wool blanket, with my head on my soft, feather pillow, tossing and turning, fearful that the sky will fall, and listening to the loud, relentless, incessant, reverberating peeping peeps of the peepers.
Of course, it is at night time that I am trying to sleep, and it just so happens that that is when the peepers come out to peep, at night. So, you may think that if I tried to sleep during the day, then I would not have the peepers keeping me awake. Thus, you may say that, if I still can’t sleep, then it is really only the fear of the sky falling that keeps me awake.
But, that’s just silly. Who can imagine the sky falling? That’s nuts. The sky can’t fall. In order for something to fall, it has to be subject to the gravitational field. Gravity may explain why the rain falls or the snow falls, but, not even Isaac Newton could postulate the sky falling. So, a fear of the sky falling is totally irrational. It’s what they call a phobia.
I’m not an irrational kind of guy. I don’t do phobias. So, if it is not a fear of the sky falling that keeps me awake at night, then it’s got to be just the peepers. The dang, relentlessly reverberating peepers,
peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peeeep peep peep peep peep peep
peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peeeep peep peep peep peep peep
peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peeeep peep peep peep peep peep
peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peeeep peep peep peep peep peep
peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep