Siesta

Thank goodness I got my nap in today. I haven't always managed to get a daily nap, but those periods of overly ambitious co-counsel or judges are part of the wastelands of my life, looking back. The productive periods, the joyful periods, the sane periods have all included the afternoon nap.

My Grandpa Casebier climbed down from his tractor and took a nap every day. Grandma Casebier called him lazy for the sixty-plus years he did so.

In the early 80's, I tried a workers' compensation case in front of an elderly judge who broke each day at noon. Now it is true the "two day trial" lasted a week, but I still think the quality of justice was higher than usual. My opposing counsel was not rested; he complained all week and drove an hour back to his office to work the rest of the day. I took a nap and a swim and read over the work for the next day. I recommend this approach to the judiciary; most of the rest of the week after a two day trial is needed for recovery anyway.

I love nap stories. When George McGovern called LBJ to ask Johnson for advice in his campaign for the presidency after McGovern won the democratic nomination, Johnson told him to take nap in his pajama's every day.

I was discussing naps with Dan Boyd today. (We once were young enough we talked about girls, then politics, then law and now naps-are these the passages in life?). Dan relates John Kenneth Galbraith nap stories. Galbraith who died at 97 took daily naps, even during busy periods such as when he was John Kennedy' ambassador to India. President Lyndon Johnson called Galbraith during a nap and Galbreath's housekeeper refused to interrupt his nap.

So do naps help you live longer? I don't know, but I like this quote:

The recent study following nearly 24,000 people for on average 6 years found that those who regularly took midday naps were nearly 40% less likely to die from heart disease than non-nappers. Researchers suggested siestas might protect the heart by reducing stress hormones levels. They found "people who took at least three naps per week lasting 30 minutes or longer had a 37% reduced risk of death from heart disease than their non-napping counterparts. Those subjects who occasionally took short naps lasting less than half an hour had a 12% lower risk than people who never napped... The results suggest that taking naps might be
just as important to protecting the heart as other measures, he says, including eating right and taking cholesterol-lowering drugs... http://ajpendo.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/292/1/E253

My friend Paul, the Lebanese Arabic Scholar, regularly slips away for his naps. He seems to me one of the saner guys in either courthouse.

Apparently there is some contrary evidence. Retirees who sleep a lot during the day don't seem to do very well.

But over all, nappers appear to be more productive, healthier, happier and longer lived than non-nappers. Of course there is a difference between causation and correlation. It may be that people who are productive and happy, give themselves a break and take a nap. It may be that those who work in the meat packing plants and field labor and other hazardous jobs don't get a chance to nap.

What is the downside to spending all that time napping? I hear plenty of anecdotes about super-achievers who slept three hours a night for a lifetime and used every waking hour to do things like cure cancer, write the great American novel or win the Nobel Peace Prize. Maybe so.

My sense, though, is that no normal lifespan is really long enough to accomplish much. Certainly, not without extraordinary skills (I may have some, but they have not yet surfaced in the first 57 years). So, barring the tyranny of man or circumstance, I'll be napping every day at about 3 pm.

Sans teeth, Sans eyes...

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

My first reaction to the Dylan Thomas poem is, "Typical old drunk. You'll accomplish not much raging against the inevitable."

But he, at least, has a plan for aging. I haven't gotten there yet.

People will give subtle hints that you are aging. For instance, I went to a comedy show with Austin and Kate a while back and all the comedians called me "Old Dude."

I do have some aging coaches who give me some ideas on how to do this hard thing.

My mother works cross-word puzzles every day and calls me to discuss some of the hard ones. She is the determined wordsmith at 85. She is planning a 100th birthday celebration with two of her sisters. She would be the oldest if they make it. She has an aunt on each side of her family who lived past 100, so she is hopeful. She heads out most days for a long walk around tiny Romney, WV. She must be some type of town fixture by now.

My old Grandma Stapleton was reciting poetry until her last year at 88. She was formidable and aggressive, too, until the end.

My friend Dr. Kuri, also, has given me much guidance. At 82, he still works seven days a week, preparing patient histories and doing pre-employment physicals. During a cross-examination today, he defended his opinion, despite his age, by noting that he is still 6 years younger than Justice Stevens. True. John Paul Stevens was born April 20, 1920 and turns 88 this month. He remains active on the Court and if he can last three more years he will pass Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. to take the record. Dr. Kuri could also have noted he is still 9 years younger than Holmes was when he was still writing Supreme Court Decisions. (Stevens authored Atkins v. Virginia, the case I discussed yesterday, that banned execution of the retarded.)

Once upon a time, long, long ago, I used to worry about not having saved any money for retirement. It was Dr. Kuri who let me off the hook on that one and told me I could not retire anyway, because I would deteriorate much too rapidly.

The worst thing about longevity: you outlive all your friends. I watched as my Grandma Stapleton's last friends and relatives died. She would watch the obituaries closely. There was a sense of triumph that she had outlasted another one, but also the sad realization that she was being left more and more alone.

Normal changes with aging. Dr. Kuri notes about teeth: it is not normal to be toothless at thirty. It is normal at 90.

I find that I am not always sure whether something is wrong or it is just a little aging. I was having a little trouble with my knees getting up and down stairs recently. I thought, "Whoops, aging." Then it get better and went away. I think I had too much incline on the treadmill during my once-monthly attempt at exercise.

One option is to try not to age. You know, comb overs, prematurely orange hair.

Another is to accept the course as the poet describes it:

And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well sav'd, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion;
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything." — Jaques (Act II, Scene VII, lines 139-166)