The City That Never Rests

By Tim Knapp

As I walked the streets last night from 7:30 to 10pm, it seemed the longer I was out the busier the streets became. How is it that on a Monday evening the activity seemed to pick up the later it got? It’s nothing new, here. It is not unusual to walk past hundreds--no, thousands--of people dining along the streets on mild evenings at tables outside the myriads of cafes and restaurants, past 10pm. Not here, anyway. After all, this is the city that never sleeps.

A fair portion of those you will see out and about after 10pm on a week night in New York City are tourists. Wild-eyed, excited, exuberant tourists who have come here to take in all they can. Sleeping is something they’re not here to do. But most of these people are not tourists. They’re New Yorkers. And they’ll be up again in the morning and off to work by 7 or 8 am. Back to work. Back to the grind. So what gives?

It’s not that they don’t sleep. They sleep, but not much. There’s simply not enough time for it. Not here, anyway. So many have come to make a name for themselves, to break into their field, to get ahead. Others have come because their high-profile, high-demand position required it. And it comes at a price.

Putting in ten to twelve hours of work per day is not the only requirement for getting ahead. There’s much shoulder-rubbing and networking to be done. One must spend a certain amount of time in the right places with the right people, doing the right things. And even though some have families, it is still what must be done. Or is it?

One might argue that as long as you’re young, why not go for it? Or, it is simply the sacrifice required to be here, make the big bucks, get the big break. Is sleep really that important? Well, yes and no. Some who sleep plenty, never seem to rest. And others who don’t get enough sleep, tend to rest well. So what’s up with that?

It could be that something is going on beneath it all. That perhaps underlying our desire for accomplishment, there’s a deep-seated need to be seen, recognized, or heard. Something that shouts for approval, even disrupting our sleep. How will we ever rest from this continual, nonstop quest for notoriety? Perhaps by realizing our rest is found not by sleeping, not in less work, and not in vacations; it is found in a person. One who said, “Come to me, all you who are weary...and I will give you rest.”