Greetings from Chicago!
Wake-up calls
The house I live in rings, beeps, rattles, buzzes, raises a musical voice in the morning – just like a tree bursting to life with singing birds at sunrise.
Let’s see. Some of my fellow seminarians prefer waking up to music and decided on a radio-alarm clock as their call to shower, coffee, and classes. Others seem to enjoy a piercing rhythmic beeping that no doubt is instrumental to jumping out of bed on cue. However, the majority appears to subscribe to a school of thought that prefers to get vertical gradually with an alarm clock that softly and gently increases the volume and speed of beeping. Then, there are those who seem to prefer some kind of negotiating relationship with their wakening call. It calls them once, once again after ten minutes, and, in one case, also for a third time. There is always something to be said for the pleasure of turning around just one more time.
My own alarm clock is white and looks like those old-fashioned ones that you have to wind up. It has a battery, though. Its beep is reminiscent of a crow with a sore throat and it’s voice adds a no-nonsense aspect to the overall composition. I got that clock while still living in Hanover, took it with me to Germany and back to the States. However, my sub-consciousness appears not to be in favor of it urging me to wake up just a fraction ahead of time. My sub-consciousness is all keyed to the ‘click’ that the mechanism makes upon engaging with the alarm. That little ‘click!’ indeed is pleasant and reminds me of the sound my wind-up metal jumping zebra made taking the next hurdle.
Studying some background literature for this article, I came across a company offering talking alarm clocks. Three models are impersonating P.G. Wodehouse’s butler Jeeves (Stephen Fry speaking), saying such wonderful things as: “Good morning Madam. I regret to say that morning in the bowl of night has flung the stone that puts the stars to flight. Most inconsiderate, I agree. But as the Prime Minister used to say: ‘We are, where we are.’” Indeed.
That reminds me of a conversation I had with a Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago librarian the other day. We discussed the topic of the availability of the required course reading material at the library. He said: “The early bird gets the worm, as we say.” I replied, “That makes a lot of the sense from the perspective of the bird, but is it also wisdom that the worm should apply?”
I’ll think about it laying in bed listening to the sounds of the songs of the awakening house while the morning is breaking. But then, “the rising and the shining cannot be postponed indefinitely. Though shining isn’t compulsory in this intractable world, the rising eventually is,” says the alarm-clock. May your mornings be bright and cheerful!
Saturday, February 7th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
