Siesta, si!

I finally got to see Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” at the February 21 showing in Hawley — I must have been one of the last folks on the planet to get around to watching it. (Kudos to Kathy Dodge and the folks at Waynepeace and Northeastern Pennsylvania Audubon for organizing the series of showings.) So it was delightful to hear that it won the Oscar for Best Documentary — and to hear the little prank Al and Leonardo di Caprio pulled at the awards ceremony, when Al almost declared his candidacy — only to be cut off by the orchestra and walk off giggling with di Caprio.

Seems that everyone’s getting into the candidacy game, doesn’t it? The impending end of the Bush Regime, coming as it is without the designation of any clear heir apparent, appears to have thrown the 2008 Presidential race wide open. So we’re in for several months of nonstop political slagging, until things settle out to the final pair of contestants.

Now, as for myself, while we’re talking about such matters, I’d like to take this opportunity to announce … that I am not running for anything. (Applause.) But that’s not stopping me from setting out some platform planks anyway, at a blog that I call “Mendler for… Whatever” ( mendlerforwhatever.blogspot.com ) — and the particular one I wanted to tell you about has to do with naps.

Naps, I don’t have to tell you, are marvelous. I usually get one in on Thursday afternoons, after I pick up my daughter from school, and it’s in many ways a highlight of my week. (Yes, I know, I need to get out more!) I used to joke with people that if I ever did run for office, I’d run on a “Siesta Party” ticket — and then I noticed something. Whenever I mentioned that, folks would get this wistful look on their faces for a moment, and many would say something like, “Man, would I vote for that.” You may have heard recently about some new studies that suggest that a midday snooze helps prevent heart disease, and can also have other healthy effects — not only for employees, but also for companies’ profitability.

In contrast, consider a recent story in Forbes that asks “Is the 70-Hour Work Week Becoming Standard?” ( msnbc.msn.com/id/17030672/ ) A study from the folks at the Center for Work-Life Policy called “Extreme Jobs: The Dangerous Allure of the 70-Hour Workweek” suggests that the drive to get ahead — or possibly just to stay ahead of the bill collectors — is pushing people to work longer and longer hours. The price is high—the increased workloads affect not only personal health but family relationships. As one poster in the message board for that story put it, “This is not what we had in mind when we started this whole ‘civilization’ thing!”

Indeed. I seem to recall, having been raised on a steady diet of Popular Science magazine as a child, that the future that was promised to us was one of increasing leisure and repose, wasn’t it?

So let me suggest a simple yet possibly revolutionary thing to do: nap. Try to arrange things so that you can fit a 20-minute afternoon nap into your life — maybe just a couple of times a week to begin with. If your workplace doesn’t like the idea — and they probably won’t, at first glance — gather the evidence, and show how you’ll be better able to deliver the time and effort needed for your job.

Suggest to your elected officials that they consider some nap-friendly workplace standards. And how about this as a “winnowing tool” for sorting through that crop of wannabes: “Senator (or Governor or Congressman or whatever), how do you feel about naps?” If they’re really on the side of working people, they’ll be sympathetic to the notion.

In fact (to bring this full circle), mightn’t adopting a slower lifestyle — with more people taking the occasional snooze — be another of those small things that can help lower energy consumption, and combat global climate change?

I think I’ll go put my feet up and think about that for a while… wake me for dinner….

- Skip Mendler