"I have not slept one wink." (Cymbeline)

.....Lately, I have begun to wonder why I feel so tired all the time, every day, and all night through the weeks and the months, and years. After much mulling, deep thinking, and researching in my files for the solution;--and asking Rhoda,--I have reached the conclusion that it is Life that makes one tired, and me, too. It must have started from the time I was a baby, otherwise why do babies sleep so much? Childhood also made me tired; not withstanding anything else, twelve years of school and puberty certainly tired me out. Then, before I could catch my breath, or take a vacation, I had four years of WWII which produced in me much fatigue. So much so that I spent the six months afterward in the mental ward of the VA Hospital in the Bronx. Not that I was crazy, mind you--just worn out and in need of medication. But as I have stated, that's Life.

.....When I left the hospital, still tired, and without thinking about it, I registered for college, and after seven years of study and answering professors' test questions, and writing a doctoral thesis, and riding the subway to school, I found myself almost comatose, but still functioning to a certain extent. I don't know that getting married and raising four children was a wise thing to do for a tired person, but that's what I did, and let me tell you, it was nothing like a ride on a merry-go-round; besides, though much fun, years of sex was so debilitating that I've decided to have nothing to do with it any more.

.....Well, it's logical and customary for a father to support his family, so I spent 30 years in a teaching career, after which I was so exhausted that I decided to retire. But little did I realize that retirement also was tiring. Even writing the word makes me tired because when you examine it, it means getting tired all over again; otherwise what could "re-tire" possibly mean but more tiredness? Consequently, it is altogether fitting and wise and just to conclude that tiredness results from Life, itself. The only way to alleviate that condition is to take a 14 day cruise to the Caribbean.