Yesterday, morning I was 100% – stone cold – freaked out about work. I had too many things to do and not nearly enough time to do them. Besides that, I’m supposed to be providing some kinda guidance to other members of my team. If I can’t get *my* work done – how am I supposed to guide them? So, I put my head down and plowed through a large amount of tasks. I was nowhere near “done,” (frankly, I no longer believe in that mythical place called “done”) when I closed my laptop around 5:30 and took the cat to the vet.
After coming home, Jen and I picked up the cooler containing the fresh caught 5lb cod from our CSF, the kale and arugula from the CSA, and hopped in the car to go over to capital_l and technolopes place. We cooked dinner, drank some wine, and laughed and talked until about 11. Not once did any of us check our email – despite all being in the same boat, work-wise. We got home and fell into bed around midnight – and today I resumed my mad scramble. I’m writing this from terminal ‘A’ of Boston Logan – leaving on the second business trip of the week. Seriously.
This sort of balance is essential. I gave up at the end of work yesterday, and simply abandoned myself to time with friends. I could have stayed home and worked – and a few years ago I would have said that I “should have.” This begs the question of “whose should,” and it turns out not to be mine.
We “should” do this for each other, because we are friends … and because this is the only life we get. Because there’s no such thing as “done,” and because at this point in our careers, work will take all the time its given. It is every individual human being’s job to figure out how to live a better, happier life … and to help the people around them if they can spare the cycles.
It’s a marathon, not a sprint. I may never be caught up – but I don’t plan on skipping Fish Fry Tuesdays for anything less than being out of town … and even then I’ll Skype in if I can.
