Posted: November 16

Jet lag and other reasons for not sleeping

It is already six days since I got back to Rome from visiting the United States and I am still not yet on a normal schedule. I go to bed tired and wake up in the middle of the night. Someone said that you need one day for every time zone of difference in your travel. Hope that is not true because Los Angeles is nine time zones away. Part of the problem comes from the fact that November in Rome means really short days and lots of rain. So I have not had much of a chance to let sunlight readjust my pineal gland which controls the body’s clock. I went out in the garden on Saturday and it felt great to be digging in the earth again, but the light was pretty grey and dim. Sunday was better in the morning, but by the time I got outside in the afternoon with a sketch pad, the cold northern wind made me forget about whatever light there was. I did one quick sketch with water colors, but the wind was too strong to dally for long.

Perhaps I am also down in the aftermath of the presidential elections. When I can’t sleep at night, I go read the papers which are full of news of the ongoing war in Iraq, and plans to turn the U.S. even more to the wrong side of the right wing. I really dislike religion being associated with the social policy of the current administration which seems untouched by Biblical concerns for justice and the poor.