There’s a lamp on my desk that I never turn off. It stays on through the day when I don’t need it, and through the night when I’m not here. Someone asks me why, sometimes, and I don’t have a good answer. It’s a small lamp. It doesn’t cost much to run.
The truth is I like coming home to a lit room. Even when nobody’s there. Especially when nobody’s there.
I think some of us keep small lights on because we know one day we’ll need them, and we don’t want to be the kind of person who forgot to leave them on.
I keep the lamp on for the version of me that gets home late. The one who’s been up too long, or thought too much, or didn’t say the thing he should have said. The lamp doesn’t ask any questions. It’s just on. It was always going to be on.
Maybe that’s what writing this is — a kind of small light. Not a performance. Not a pitch. Just a lamp I’m leaving on, in case someone reading this needs to come home to something warm.