Ever since childhood, I have considered myself a child of
the night. As a little boy I used to enjoy riding in my parents' car at night,
looking out the window at the lights in the city. Black was also my favorite
color, providing a fitting backdrop to the brilliant pin-pricks of starlight
visible in the night sky. The moon, in its four phases, has always been a draw
to me, never ceasing to inspire me with its beauty. I was enthralled by the
lunar eclipse of December 1992, just one day before a massive nor'easter
slammed the Northeast U.S., flooding the New York City subways. When I was
growing up, the excitement of the most important holidays was also centered on
the night, from the fireworks of July 4th to watching the ball drop in Times
Square.
With youthful exuberance, I embraced the night as a
teenager and young adult, hanging with friends and sampling various forms of
mischief. When I was 19, my friend and I went through a period when we would
drive around on city streets and on Route 22, a local Pennsylvania highway,
listening to hard rock music. My friend had an old model Ford Mustang and we
would sometimes treat the people of Bethlehem to clouds of exhaust smoke. As we
got into our early 20s, my friend and I would visit local bars and strip clubs,
armed with a bottle of Southern Comfort. We enjoyed drinking and socializing at
the Tally Ho Tavern in South Bethlehem.
Even in my sober, responsible life I find the night to be
best. For both reading and writing, I have always been most productive at
night, delving into fantasy worlds and playing around with the English language
as I experiment with different forms of writing. Of course, I did homework at
this time while attending high school, feasting on the Canterbury Tales,
utilizing the MLA format or torturing my brain with the details of
Trigonometry. As I reached my mid-twenties, I would spend nights writing
frequent entries in my journal, expressing my thoughts on a troubling period of
my life. Now, at age 35, late evening is when I write my blog posts, as this is
when the Muses inspire me and words seemingly flow from my finger tips!
For the media, the night is of critical importance.
People like me watch TV and movies, taking in the ingenuity of the
entertainment industry. I rent movies from the Bethlehem Area Public Library,
making use of their large collection of popular films. I greatly enjoyed the
Last Picture Show, Apocalypse Now and American History X - I would recommend
all of these movies! Seasons of TV shows are also fun to watch on DVD. I've
enjoyed Law & Order: Criminal Intent, King of Queens, and Breaking Bad. On
my TV in the basement, I also watch current shows, such as Naked and Afraid on
the Discovery Channel.
The quiet privacy of night is also the time for many of
us to fool around on our computers, surfing the Internet and playing computer
games. This is a great time for making new friends on social media, as many
people are home from work or drunkenly posting funny memes from their bar
stools. I've also spent countless evenings reading up on obscure, forbidden
topics through detailed, but odd Google searches. Then there is Civilization
III: I enjoy building huge empires and destroying rival civilizations. The
cozy, quiet darkness outside creates a perfect environment to be huddled in
front of any sort of screen.
For a period of several years in my twenties, the
nighttime was when I took on the town, for drinking, partying and other
adventures. My four favorite bars were Bethlehem Brew Works, Tally Ho, Ripper's
and OBT. They were the scene of many drunken conversations, raunchy jokes and
fun flirtations. If the night got good enough, there was also dancing on the bar
and body shots! I also enjoyed my friends' occasional house parties, sauntering
home as the birds started to chirp. I usually got home okay, but, once or
twice, I slept outside drunk, once in a ditch and once in the woods; luckily, I
never got arrested for this!
Nighttime is the undisputed domain of sexuality, in
almost every relationship or liaison. We all enjoy most of our sexual
encounters in the privacy and anonymity of night. There are lots of attractive,
glammed-up women at the bars and clubs, while we guys use cheesy pick-up lines.
Of course, the alcohol functions as an aphrodisiac and love potion. All in all,
the night creates an aura of steamy sexuality, like a scene from a romance
novel or movie. People make love in parks, in parked cars and in dark, secluded
bodies of water, creating a new generation of naughty, nocturnal creatures.
Overnight periods are exciting and dramatic, even when
they don't turn out as planned. Even bad nights can make for great stories, and
sometimes give bragging rights. Kids run away at night, people fail field
sobriety tests, and couples start epic arguments that become legendary when
they take place in public places. There is the exhilaration of taking a risk
when you don't know the outcome. This is the essence of life, as life itself is
a risk.
The dark of night is also the best time to gestalt - to
just think intently and let our minds focus on certain subjects. This is a time
when I like to take stock of my life and its direction. This is when we all
tend to second-guess everything and make outrageous plans for the future. When
we think in a deep, philosophical way, we discover our identity. We become
aware of what we truly think, believe and feel, what we like and don't like.
This certainty gives us the strength and confidence to take on the world the
next day.
I am proud of my p.m. existence and its importance to me
will only increase in the future. My future work will be done at night, a
critical time for re-establishing myself socially and creating a greater quantity
of meaningful content. I plan to use my passion and creativity to recapture the
night, transforming myself into a local social personality and figure that gets
his strength from the night and the fun, but sketchy characters who dwell
there. Thus, my blogging education will be put to good use!
