Is There Such A Thing As A "Good" Morning?

There’s an old saying that says it takes all kinds to make the world go 'round.

Short people, tall people; big people, small people...
(Dr. Seuss would be so proud.)

But I don’t think there’s ever been a bigger canyon of difference between two groups of people that everybody’s familiar with: morning people and night people.

As soon as you read those words, you knew which one you were, didn’t you? Yep. I’ve known from a very early age in which category I belong ...(“Gregg, will you get out of bed already? It’s almost noon!!)...and it’s not easy to change.

The dreaded “m” word has haunted me for much of my life, and it’s even twice as scary when turned into “Doube M”: Monday morning.

I marvel at people who can wake up with the sun and start their day with a half hour of exercise, read the early edition of the newspaper front to back and have a well-balanced breakfast. I don’t know where they find the time.

My morning exercise consists of one giant leap out of bed and into the shower, and I’m lucky if I grab a granola bar on my way out the door...if I have a couple extra seconds to open the cabinet door. I don’t read anything before maybe 10:30 a.m., because my eyes are still closed, trying to make a slow transition from sleep mode to grumpy awake mode.

I must state here that I’ve seen my share of sunrises. But there’s a big difference between getting up at sunrise and staying up until sunrise. I once was a champion of the latter, and have never been too crazy about the former.

The first one has happened a time or two in my life, though, and I’ve got the pictures from trolling on Lake Michigan to prove it. Actually, they’re just pictures of the sunrise; they’re not pictures of me in a boat at sunrise. You can take my word for it that I was pressing the shutter, though, ok? I really was.

I prefer an all-night card game where I’m driving home to find my bed as the sun’s peeking up over the horizon. I pause to soak in all of Mother Nature’s beauty in the morning light and a strange calmness falls over me...because I know that soon my head will be on my pillow and I’ll be catchin’ some serious zzz’s.

Some people are talented enough to pull of the double duty of being both morning and night people. These people are called insomniacs. Or to save a few syllables...tired.

What’s the Army slogan that was in their commercials years ago? “We get more done before 9 a.m. than most people do all day.” That may be true, but do they get more sleep before 9 a.m. than us nightowls? I rest my case.

For the record, I have given serious consideration to attempting to change my ways and becoming a more awake, alert, ambitious morning person. I’ll let you know how that all turns out.

Until then, it’s gonna be granola bars on the fly instead of scrambled eggs and toast with the daily sports page.

And an alarm clock with a boxing glove attachment, for that industrial-strength wake-up call.

“It’s hard to seize the day when
you must first grapple with the morning.”
—Unattributed