The radio silence around here is due to my first traveling for a conference (these folks) and then coming home from the conference with a stomach bug. As I lay in bed, I pondered a lot of things about illness and work. That made me think of this post which appeared here last year about whether shut-ins have a calling to work.
And it also made me think of a larger movement in American culture questioning the very existence of a work ethic, and arguing in many cases for a universal basic income so we can get on with more important things. Jon Malesic (one of the prophets of that movement) wrote an essay in Commonweal, which I read while in bed, on how Thomas Aquinas is the patron saint of burnout.
C. S. Lewis once said that the point in convalescence where you were well enough to sit up, read, and putter (in his case, puttering meant reading Dante) was his favorite part of an illness. It’s my husband’s favorite part, too. I, on the other hand, can’t stand it. “I have things to do!” I say. “I have emails! People expect things from me!”
Something else to think about while you’re in bed: is it you, or is it post-Fordism?
Image: Pexels.
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