The pale princess spoke first. "I remember the people I love who have died. My parents, my best friend when I was 8. And then overcome with emotion, I cry, until my conscious self refuses to take it anymore and forces my being into the subconsciousness of slumber." Her big, sad eyes welled with tears.
The naive individual spoke next. "I count sheep. Er, it helps." She gave a sheepish smile.
The aged soul rose slowly, so he literally stood out in the group. "I get to sleep with much ease. It is waking up to this wretched world that should be the subject of much exploration here."
The weary warrior said, "I get to sleep with much difficulty. For by sleeping, I surrender my senses to the night - the very same senses that have kept me alive all these years."
The pretender spoke after that, "Hah! Well nothing knocks me out like a few glasses of tequila...after many more glasses of tequila!"
The romantic was next to give her input. "I watch the stars and I know that somewhere, under that same blanket of stars, is the love of my life, staring up at the very same heaven that I am staring at. And with that knowledge, I joyfully fall asleep."
The questioner turned to the lone man standing at a distance from the group. "And what about you, kind sir?"
The man smiled. While most smiles conveyed the thoughts of a person, this smile made the man seem even more enigmatic. "I do not sleep, for my mind is never in slumber. When my eyes are closed at night, I enter the world of dreams, and that world is just as real to me as the world I see and touch when my eyes are open in the day."
The questioner impassively drew his attention away from the man, and faced the group. "Now I ask another question to all of you. What is it that you desire most when you are not in the realm of sleep?"
The pretender laughed by himself and said loudly, "Tequila! Bountiful supplies of tequila!"
The aged soul croaked feebly, "Rest. I desire rest. And peace."
The romantic gave her answer: "I desire to be loved for who I am, and not what I represent or what I do. And I desire to love somebody as such in return."
The pale princess responded instantly to this. "I desire the same. However, I have felt this love before and I have lost it. I mourn it. And I desire for this love to come back, though a part of me knows this to be impossible."
The weary warrior said, "I want to live without fear. To have courage rule my heart, and for my heart to rule my mind."
A sound escaped from the mouth of the naive individual. The entire congregation turned to face her, waiting for her to speak. She blushed fiercely, and looked down. "I - I don't know what I want. I guess what I want is to know what I want when I am awake. If - that - makes - sense to you."
The questioner smiled reassuringly at her. "Of course it does my dear." He then looked at the lone man, silent. The group turned to him also, expectant.
The man said, "When I am awake, I do not desire anything. For I have nothing, and in that, I have everything. The Earth provides for me, and I in turn provide for the Earth. And yet the Earth owes me nothing, and the Earth has no dues of me. I am both the poorest and the richest man to walk the Earth."
The pretender looked at the man incredulously. "Who ARE you?"
The man smiled his inscrutable smile again. "I am not any of you. And yet I am all of you. Without any one of you, I would not be me." He gestured at the questioner. "And I speak of you also, sir. The ties that bind us - all of us - are invisible, intangible and hitherto unheard of. But we are doves chained together, soaring in the air. We are fundamentally free, but irreversibly linked to one another. I only ask you to consider this: What you want in life may determine how you get to sleep. But it does not determine how you sleep. How we sleep may not exactly be one of life's greater mysteries, but it is one of life's greatest answers. And with that, I bid you adieu."
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