night blindness

It is often said that you don't know that you miss something until you lose it, but recently I realised that deprivation makes you realise how much you can do without.

We normally have too much light in this city, as seen in the abnormally bright nights where you have to shield your eyes from the glare of the street lights and the stars lose their primal function. But one day in the not-too-distant past, I realised that the lights at the basketball court go out by 10 pm. So there I was, alone in the dark court, wondering whether I should just go home because I'd already been playing for 15 minutes, or whether I should keep shooting because I'd only been playing for 15 minutes. I chose the latter and realised that it was amazing how your body adapts to the lack of light, and how there really is an absolute lack of night, even in the heartland. 90 degrees to the hoops, and I'm blinded by the lights from the adjacent HDB block. 'Blinded' - the way looking at the sun leaves a mark on your retina that doesn't go away for a while. You end up playing with your eyes closed (at certain angles), and you only know your shot has landed when you hear the swish of the net. (That is, if the net hasn't been shredded already).

But it wasn't a bad experience at all. Everything seems so much clearer at night - a lot less distractions, hence a lot more focus. Your mind clears faster too. You see people hurrying home at 11 pm, in office wear, you see toddlers with their parents wandering about, (and wonder what happened to the 'children need to sleep 8 hours' idea). It's a great cure for insomnia, with the added benefit of learning more about the community. Of course, with the recent spate of molest and stabbing cases in the neighbourhood, let's change that to 'selective' learning.

Then again, if no other reason exists for playing basketball at night, at least now the "I don't have time to exercise because I come back late" excuse is no longer valid for me. Bah. That's one less defense mechanism (rationalisation) I can use.