Commentary

Until late at night

October 22, 2026   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

Writers often write at odd hours. Some stay up late to scribble away the quiet of night. Canada and Orangeville’s much-loved playwright, Norm Foster, says that he is up at 5 a.m. or as mid-night as 2 a.m. to write his many very funny plays as his whims take him.

“I love writing then, “ he told a group of us after Foster, David Nairn and Mairi Babb had done a reading of Foster’s play Jonas and Barry in the Home, here in town.

“The characters pop up in my mind and I write it down,” he said.

He told us that he is always so excited to sit down in the very early morning and see what comes next. Once he has written for four hours or so… he has breakfast and maybe a nap.

Between the hours of midnight and, say, five in the morning is generally very quiet. Much of the world around us is asleep; it is natural perhaps to dim the lights within the household, even to our tech — turn off the TV — maybe add some music.

There was a stretch of a few years, after my husband Colin died, when I was living on my own in Hockley, busy with writing for local papers, riding and caring for Patrick and our other horses twice a day, doing whatever else the day expected of me.

Then, I had the evenings to myself into whatever time of the night I chose. I binged – watched Murdock Mysteries, did the illustrations for my children’s books, wrote poetry…

There were no expectations of me during those evenings that lasted as long or as short as I decided. No one was going to call, and no one was thinking about me. So, it was quiet, a time to create, to think.

To simply be.

My phone tells me once a week that I use it about 40 to 44 minutes a day, and I suspect that is rather low, relatively speaking. Living together as Patricia and I do now, it seems to me that her phone reports a use of two to two -and- a- half hours a day and probably even that is low compared to lots of other people, doing business, social media, scrolling to check all the news and views that are available.

There are plenty of sources that promote the benefits of some solitude, of boredom even, because, given the space to breathe, our brains are always busy, and a break from having to pay attention all the time is a good thing. A friend of mine observed a person waiting, as it seemed, just idling his time — it was not clear. But he was on his phone, never lifting his eyes from it. Not looking around at the passing scene where he stood.

Have we lost the ability to live in the real world? When are the moments when we just stand back, as it were, and watch the world go by?

Somehow, someone has conned us into thinking that we have to be involved all the time, always up to date with the news from far and near; anxious to FaceTime our multitude of friends to see …. really I don’t know what. Patricia delivers snippets.

The internet was touted as a wonderful thing when it was launched — true universal democracy at last when freedom of speech was guaranteed to everyone. No one considered the harm such freedom permitted, the addiction to it and the lies and bullying its freedom would allow.

There is plenty of pressure for sure, worldwide, to separate ourselves from our phones for a daily space of time, with plenty of schools insisting that phones are not allowed in the classroom. Countries are trying to pass laws that restrict the use of the internet by young people at ages when they are most vulnerable to suffer the online harm that can be so present.

We are urged at any age to leave our phones at home and go for a walk where there are trees for an hour or so. To give ourselves a break with a time of being undistracted, quietly reflective, letting our thoughts float without constraints as to direction – I would not even call it meditation, just 15 minutes perhaps to turn off and think of nothing is very creative – strangely enough.

It is now understood that children having time off from an organized schedule is good for them and for the same reasons – to create on their own, make up stories, stack their blocks any way they like.

This paper carries pages and pages on the subject of seniors’ lives, the care, the socializing, the keep-fit classes, the communities in which one can live that are safe and friendly.

Acknowledging the dangers of isolation and the fear of being forgotten, these pages speak, as does so much else about this town, that this is a very caring community, maybe one of the best, according to the local sources with whom I have spoken in my lengthy role as a journalist.

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