Lethargy is a phenomenon which I do not understand. This is not for a lack of experience with it -- oh no, Courtney Henning has plenty of experience with that most sluggish of states. However, as I sit here by my Mac, watching the little Microsoft cursor blink, I find myself wondering about this thing called lethargy. And the only conclusion I can come to is, "Lethargy stinks."
For example, let's take this moment in time. I am feeling more lethargic than a well-fed sloth, but there is no reason for this. I want to do well in my classes; I am relatively well-rested; and, I am so healthy I do not even possess a trace of a sniffle. However, I do not want to do anything. I do not even want to go to bed. That would require too much effort.
Things definitely went downhill in terms of my motivation levels while I was doing my AM radio show this afternoon with my partner, Austin. (Actually, this partner's name is Jason. But since he really wants to be Austin Powers, I thought I'd allow him the code name.) From the moment he entered the studio, Austin exuded lethargy: "After Latin this morning, I went back to my room and slept. After the show, I'm going back to my room. And I'm going to sleep until dinner. Then, I'm going to work on Latin before going to bed early."
Talk about a paradigm of energy. By the end of our shift, I found myself having visions of my bed and flannel pajamas and harboring such villainous thoughts as, "Well, I won't fail if I don't do my reading today." But despite my desire to bond with my bed at 2 in the afternoon, I was determined to do my work.
So, when I returned to my room, I had a show-down of sorts with my bed. I looked at my bed and thought, "No, I do not want to rest. I want to do my psych reading." But as I checked blitz, I heard my bed whisper, "Oh Courtney, I am feeling so lonely. Please, come lie down."
I glared at my bed. "No. I have to do my psych reading."
My bed hung its head in shame and coercively suggested, "You can do your psych reading in bed."
This was an appealing suggestion, to say the least. However, just as I was about to climb under the covers with my psych text, my last scrap of motivation prevailed. "No!" It screamed. "Don't do it! You're going to read one lousy page and then fall asleep until dinner! You are not spending one minute with that horrible bed until midnight!" I was about to argue that my bed is not a horrible creature. In fact, it is a most wonderful and divine being, seeing how it harbors the sweet beauty that is sleep. However, before I could resist, my motivation drove me out of my bedroom, into the common room, and onto a chair where I managed to get some work done.
However, that was my last scrap of motivation. Since that last victory, a blob of lethargy has subtly stolen over my body and hardened into a shell of apathy. And I am left to wonder, what intervention will break this shell? A good night's sleep? A candy bar? A lousy ray of sunshine?
In the meantime, I think helplessly about all the work I need to be doing but since work is incompatible with bed, I know that it will not all be done. And even more horrifying, from these goggles of lethargy, I don't care. I congratulate myself for my feeble attempts at work, shrug, and reason, "I can catch up tomorrow."
Fortunately, I am not alone. For starters, I believe that lethargy is contagious and I caught this foul disease from Austin. I know that right now he is looking at his bed, then looking at his Latin, and then looking right back at his bed. And another friend informed me on Sunday that in two hours of reading, he managed to get through only ten pages of Middlemarch. Now, that's almost as pathetic as the one page of history reading I did in 55 minutes last night.
I'd blame lethargy on the weather but I know that if it were sunny, warm, and dry out, I'd be lying on the Green, looking at my psych books and then deciding to take a nap instead. More likely, I'd say this is a negative reaction to Week five of the term. My body is just gathering energy so I can survive the next impending round of midterms. Just hopefully, when that time arrives, I won't be too far behind in my reading.
