We Sleep Alone

21.7.09

This is a scratchy old photograph.

It's the ceiling of a big, chamber-like waiting room in Bangkok Airport.

I took it on my mobile phone in early December 2006 while in transit.

It was about 10pm local time.

I remember being extremely tired

After failing to sleep on the 9 hour flight there.

There was still an hour to go before our flight to Frankfurt boarded,

So I lay down on a row of seats to relax and looked up.

I was listening to "The District Sleeps Alone Tonight"

By The Postal Service.

You can't tell from the photograph but the ceiling was actually really far away

And the glass panels were black from the night and shiny from the lights

At the same time.

I imagined the windows to be people, the people of the district -

Segregated in their own little spaces,

Existing as separate entities,

Sleeping alone.

It was a really strange image though.

It was as if the district was in fact a galaxy.

Out there, in front of me,

In the dark sky above me.

Last night I was at my friend's new apartment.

We were getting ready to go up north to a mate's,

And he was taking one of his typically long showers,

So I had some time to look around.

The sun was setting.

Below, I could hear the sounds of others

Coming home from work,

Walking their dogs,

Watching TV,

Making dinner.

It got me thinking about how apart human's live.

While meerkats and lions and,

Well, pretty much all animals really,

Sleep together as a pack,

Humans do not.

Often, we come together after the sun falls,

Eat,

Drink,

Perhaps play games, watch television, hang out together.

But then we go off to our own rooms.

We end the day alone in our own beds.

In apartment blocks we live on top of one other,

Next to each other,

Separated only by a few centimetres of concrete

Or the length of a courtyard.

But when the day is over and we're in our beds

Those few centimetres seem like a lot more.

Perhaps it is inevitable

As we strive to get ahead,

To become successful,

To live more comfortably

That we end the day alone,

That we look after ourselves first and foremost.

And so

The District Sleeps Alone Tonight.

It does every night.

Should we just accept this and cling on to what we get while it lasts?

The Postal Service - The District Sleeps Alone Tonight