April 2011 Entries
The other day, I ran into the grocery store to pick up a last minute item for dinner. As I meandered through the aisles trying to find the one item I needed, I noticed the checkout lines were long and dotted with carts of overflowing groceries. But then I spied the lone express checkout line and breathed a sign of relief. I was pressed for time and needed to get in and out of that store quickly.
As I watched the accounts of the damaging tornadoes that ripped through North Carolina this week killing 24 people, I was struck by how quickly the lives of those people changed. Loved ones lost, homes reduced to lumber piles, power outages, and devastation were everywhere you looked. In a strange way, the devastation focused my thoughts on this Holy Week.
Speaking of taxes, have you completed yours and mailed them to the IRS? Are you feeling stressed by the process, money owed, or last minute post office run? Actually, you get a break this year and have until Monday April 18 at midnight because April 15 is the celebration of Emancipation Day, a Washington D.C. holiday.
In the same way a drug addict uses pot or an alcoholic downs booze, work can have an anesthetizing effect on negative emotions. Yes, people do use work to escape and avoid unpleasant emotional states. Because hard work is sanctioned in our society, it is an addiction often overlooked. But, the fall out for the family can be just as devastating.