JIM “PAPPY” MOORE: The History of Napping

The best part of retirement is The Nap. We start our lives with napping. As babies we get put down for a nap regularly. And we sleep like a baby when we do so. No worries. No cares. As we approach school age, we don’t need a nap any more. We are “too big to take a nap!” Oh, we might have a nap at school that first year. Maybe the teacher would read us a story and then we were expected to sleep briefly. Then came the balance of life, where the nap was something largely unheard of.

Decades pass by. School. Military. College. Work. Naps are seldom had, and when they are had, they’re likely to be some catching up from too little sleep the night or week before. Exhausted on a Saturday, we fall face down on a bed or sofa and drift off into deep slumber. But all that is not the glorious Retirement Nap of which I write.

The Retirement Nap is God’s gift to those who make it to retirement and finally do not have so many irons in the fire they cannot simply lie down and snooze any time they feel like it. That is retirement’s greatest gift.

The Retirement Nap has no special time. Its time is NOW. It’s any time I feel like. It might be 9:30 am. Or noon. Or 2 pm. Or 5 pm. Or 8 pm. It’s whenever I get the urge and do not have any pressing business.

With the ability to record any television show, any sporting event, I can go nap in the first quarter of the football game. I can nap in the middle of the baseball game. I can skip that favorite TV show and watch it when I am in the mood later.

When I go to bed at night, I might find something is on my mind that keeps me awake for a while. The Nap never does that to me, because I take the nap when I get the urge, and I get the urge when my mind and body say “hey, let’s get that nap. Now.”

The key to The Nap is I get it any time I want it, any time I need it, and it’s good every time! It’s never “too tired.” It’s never “not in the mood.” It’s never “feeling lousy.” It’s always ready when I’m ready. I jump in the bed, roll over, and ZONK, I’m gone.

I wake up whenever I wake up. There is not a timetable. I may sleep forty-five minutes or three hours. Or some time in between. I sleep until I wake up, and even then, I make sure I want to get up before I do. There’s no rushing the nap. “Oh, I’ve slept an hour. Maybe I need to close my eyes and get some more.”

Slumber is my only concern when I am napping. I don’t care about the weather. Or politics. Or what I’m going to eat. Or if I might need to get something done, or someone seen. It’s just me and the bed, having a good time together.

When we see a baby sleeping, we marvel at how knocked out they are. Completely at peace most of their nap, they are a picture of contentment. No worries. Just sleeping.

That’s what I aim for when napping. My head hits the pillow and I am OUT in a minute or two. I woke up an hour ago from a nap thinking “that’s what I’m gonna write about today.”