Work, Work, Work

To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time to every purpose, under heaven

A time to build up, a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together
~ Pete Seeger

It’s the busy season in the print industry and I AM slammed.

Leisure is only possible when we are at one with ourselves. We tend to overwork as a means of self-escape, as a way of trying to justify our existence.
~ Josef Pieper, Leisure: The Basis of Culture

I don’t work to justify my existence. I DO work as a way to escape mi vida loca (AND pay the bills) – it’s, essentially, a way to zen out, to focus my bean on things less scary than my health and the heinous state of our government.  Design/layout work is, generally, peaceful and absorbing.

What to do though when I’m utterly overwhelmed by it? There’s just TOO damn much right now.

Man is the only real enemy we have. Remove Man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished forever.
~ George Orwell 

George was a fabulously smart dude BUT, in this case I’m not sure he thought this through quite enough. If man (as in mankind) is removed from the equation, wouldn’t we all be gone too? Granted, the world would spin a LOT more smoothly but, ya know, whose lap would Coco sit on all day?

The human race is a monotonous affair. Most people spend the greatest part of their time working in order to live, and what little freedom remains so fills them with fear that they seek out any and every means to be rid of it.
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther

This MAY be the case for some but not I.

Also, living in fear of not being able to pay the medical bills, not being able to put food on the table or not having rent money – that shit’s real. A lot of us are in the embrace of deep economic insecurity. We can thank Reagan and the Republi/Fascist greedheads for that.

As Bill said:

The Reagan-Bush years have exalted private gain over public obligation, special interests over the common good, wealth and fame over work and family. The 1980s ushered in a Gilded Age of greed and selfishness, of irresponsibility and excess, and of neglect. (source)

Who’s winning? Who’s able to kick back and take nice relaxing vacas to Montenegro, Belize OR the bloody Cape? It ain’t you and me – it’s the Betsy DeVos’s, Steve Mnuchin’s and the rest of Festering Lump 45’s rapacious cabinet.

For fast-acting relief, try slowing down.
~ Lily Tomlin

Yup, makes boatloads of sense but it’s bloody hard to do. There’s too damn much work right now BUT in another month there won’t be enough. I’ve just gotta ride this swell.

I can do this.