The Purpose Of Waking Up Well

In the 2005 romantic comedy Hitch — not entirely an unpredictable film — the character played by Will Smith seems unusually spring-footed one morning when he has no real reason to be so. On being queried about this unexpected jauntiness, he replies something to the effect that one should wake up everyday “as if it was on purpose”. Now, there’s what appears to be a totally throw-off thought that to this writer at least seemed to define the film and perhaps see it in a new light. Because, otherwise, our usual purpose of waking up each morning is mainly due to rote — a mechanical process stemming from routine by dint of repetition without full attention or understanding, and possibly quite forgotten over the course of time. 

Yes of course there’s always a general purpose to waking. Physiologically, our bodies follow a circadian rhythm of a daily activity (and inactivity) cycle, based on 24-hour intervals that requires us — among other things — to wake at roughly the same times each morning in order to perform optimally. It’s an important biological purpose. In a more societal context, we wake to attend to the demands of home, kids, studies or work, every one of which is very necessary when we’ve opted to live in units or communes. It’s an important social purpose. So-called creative people have to wake to create their masterpieces. And so on and so forth. So, sure, there’s a ‘purpose’, but note: not ‘as if it was on purpose’. Big difference.

For, while in the former the underlying motive expressed is something like, “I have to wake up (to take care of things which simply cannot go unattended)”, in the latter, it is, “Tomorrow, I intend to wake up (because I seem to have a new or long-unfulfilled agenda)”. Suddenly, a sense of far more involvement in what will happen manifests itself in our midst.

And finally note, too, that the ‘as if’ as used by the Hitch character is not in the sense of make-believe either — like in a pretend game of motorised waking that we apparently are all getting constantly better at the longer we live. Rather, it’s used in the sense of becoming spontaneously alive and maybe even raring to go. That is to say, instead of merely waking from a long night’s sleep, we need to open our eyes after a lifelong slumber. The only hitch is, in order to do that, we have to redefine the meaning of purpose so that it serves a higher and more meaningful intent.

Mukul Sharma