A book has appeared about lying down. Finally, someone is addressing my interests. How the mattress was invented, how people rested in prehistoric times, what sofas really do, what we truly know about sleep, and the advantages and disadvantages of lying with someone. All that and much more is explored and explained in a concise cultural history of a horizontal posture. The translation is in the same voice. The opening line sets the tone and invites sympathy for the topic: “Are you lying down? If you are, you have chosen the right posture and you do not need to apologize for it.” It is not easy to praise the value of being horizontal, especially in a culture that values action, performance, speed, and immediacy. Or perhaps the value of sitting, at least when seated at a computer. This is not a celebration of laziness, at least not from what has been read so far, because it also suggests that besides the obvious activities we do in bed, there is room for writing, eating, reading, and even thinking, things sometimes overlooked. The most devoted even meditate. The discussion does not focus only on conventional lying in bed. One can lie down in a field, in a hammock, on the beach, and there are even those who manage to sleep or rest on a table, not to mention the familiar sofa.
Andar and correr are seen as complements to reclining, and only someone exhausted from moving the legs can truly appreciate the deep relaxation that lying down provides. It is, as a matter of fact, a pleasure by contrast.
In our culture, remaining in a horizontal position is accepted mostly as a brief phase of regeneration. Therefore, lying down can become an act of rebellion. It depends, however, on what a person plans to do after resting. In today’s world, one can call for a revolution, issue orders, organize a demonstration, inflame protests, or stage a vigil on social networks all from the bed and with a phone in hand.
A short essay touched on the idea of lying down not simply as doing nothing, and it suggested in a characteristic voice that one could imagine a master artist conceiving grand frescoes while looking toward the ceiling. Resting, of course.
There is a simple imperative: lie down. Above all, as the old rhyme says, to indulge in sleep before the final moment of mortality. Perhaps this very page finds the reader lying down. That is the right approach.