Guilt, Illness and the Puritan Work Ethic
Denise Moss ·
Dec 3, 2010 at 12:03pm
I've been sick since Sunday. I mean really sick. Not the stuff-myself-with-OTC-Meds and soldier on sick, but old fashioned bed rest sick. Started with my stomach turning inside out, moved to rack-like body aches, all mixed in with sinus headaches and a neck that was frozen to my shoulders by pain. And I know pain...I've gone through child birth.
Here's the problem, I've got a pilot to write and other tv work and I just can't focus. I'm not a Puritan, heck, I'm not even Christian, but I feel damn guilty. You other writers out there, what do you do? And if you're the type who writes even if they've just lost an arm in a combine accident, you're not going to help me.
Thanks for letting me gripe. I feel a little better already.
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Jul '10
Re: Guilt, Illness and the Puritan Work Ethic
Cut yourself a break. Infectious agents manufacture enormous quantities of toxins. When those toxins overwhelm your brain you are, quite literally, intoxicated.
While you might be able to, say, make a waffle or vacuum a floor just as well while in the throes of sickness as when you're in the pink of health, you just can't perform brain work at your peak. Because you're intoxicated. And dumb.
I share your pain. I've had a horrible upper respiratory infection for two weeks now and I feel like I've lost 50 IQ points.
Re: Guilt, Illness and the Puritan Work Ethic
Funny, Denise, I was just about to relieve my spleen on this subject with a post called "Keep Your Damned Cold Germs to Yourself," but I couldn't figure out the center-right justification for it. When I get a cold, I'm often laid so low I'm unable to work for weeks and sometimes months. I get secondary infections and sinus infections and, once, pneumonia that left me hospitalized for a week.
When someone with a nasty cold tells me this only after shaking my hand or kissing my cheek, I want to send them to a brutal re-education camp, to be released only when they understand the basics of public hygiene.
I'd rather they just punched me; it would get it all over with faster. I hate people who don't think it's a big deal to just drip germs all over.
Get well soon.
Re: Guilt, Illness and the Puritan Work Ethic
Normally, my problem is the opposite. The demands of my work are such that I have to steal a moment here and there to do any writing. But sometimes, when I finally have an hour or so I can call my own, the brain rebels. Rather than force the issue (which always shows in my work), oftentimes I opt for some pleasurable reading. A favorite book occasionally gets a synapse to pop, and the words start to flow from there. Then there's Nyquil... Hope you feel better soon.
Edited on Dec 3, 2010 at 12:50pmOct '10
Re: Guilt, Illness and the Puritan Work Ethic
If you are feeling guilty about not working, you are probably not Puritan but Catholic. Having previously been the latter and currently the former, I can say this with some authority and with tounge in cheek.
But as a doctor, I would have to agree with Kenneth. Give yourself a break. You are not being slothful (one of the seven deadlies) but sick. Though you may not be Christian, still God gives grace to the afflicted.
Sep '10
Re: Guilt, Illness and the Puritan Work Ethic
Dear Denise:
I have a massive edit sitting on my desk right now, a novel freshly in from Knopf. I have to get it done, I agree, but I have also found that nothing in the writer's world is ever quite as urgent as editors and publishers wish you to believe. I've been writing for thirty years, I've been as sick as you (well, almost) a few times, in exactly your situation, and what did I do about it?
I contacted my editor at the top of the business day, usually by phone, and I said I'm too sick to work, and if I tried I'd just have to rewrite it later. They'll cope. When there's nothing to be done, nothing is what you should do. Pros get that, and I gather you're working with pros. Have faith in your professional gravitas, take the time to get better, and then get back in the saddle. They all know you're good. You don't have to prove it from a sick bed. Cheers, Carsten Stroud.
Aug '10
Re: Guilt, Illness and the Puritan Work Ethic
Kenneth: Cut yourself a break. Infectious agents manufacture enormous quantities of toxins. When those toxins overwhelm your brain you are, quite literally, intoxicated.
While you might be able to, say, make a waffle or vacuum a floor just as well while in the throes of sickness as when you're in the pink of health, you just can't perform brain work at your peak. Because you're intoxicated. And dumb.
I share your pain. I've had a horrible upper respiratory infection for two weeks now and I feel like I've lost 50 IQ points.
So true, Kenneth. (This was the story of my academic career.) Danged bodily existence!
I suppose the closest I've ever come to a "trip" was working on proofs with a high fever while listening to the Vienna Boys' Choir. An exhilarating experience, yes, but not exactly conducive to sanity.
So mind how you go, Denise. Burnout because you thought you could defy your physical limitations and simply laugh off illness is no fun -- and it takes a lot longer to get over than giving in to being sick in the first place.
Speaking of laughter, laughter is good medicine. Read something funny :-)
Oct '10
Re: Guilt, Illness and the Puritan Work Ethic
Let me add my voice to the chorus. Let yourself be sick! It's the only way you're going to get better.
When you try and push through a serious illness, it really just makes it worse and prolongs your recovery period.
I'd rather (and I think my bosses would rather I) be seriously ill for 2 days and not do any work than do sub-par work for a week or two because I'm not allowing myself time to get better.
Re: Guilt, Illness and the Puritan Work Ethic
All great encouragement, Ricos! Thank you. Luckily I have Netflix streaming in one room, Vudu in another and a pile of academy screeners. I'll just email my execs and O.D. on movies my husband doesn't want to watch guilt free.
And Claire, as an employee and an employer, I don't ever appreciate people coming to work sick. Even at my daughter's highly rigorous, type-A school it is a big no-no.
And lets all thank God for man's discovery of germ theory and the healing powers of chicken matzo ball soup. Get better Kenneth and Happy Hannukah all. Night 3.
Oct '10
Re: Guilt, Illness and the Puritan Work Ethic
Ditto what Kenneth said! Stay in bed till your brain starts working on its own. Rest is the great healer, and fighting your body is not the sign of good characters so many cheap moralists make it out to be. They're usually the ones who have never actually been seriously ill. Or the militant advocates for natural childbirth who make you feel like a failure if you even bring up the possibility of pain medication -- and who turn out to have "endured" a mere 4 hours in labor themselves.
If you absolutely, positively, must get something rolling, get in your car and take a nice long drive. It doesn't take much exertion and it's harder to descend into that slough of despair the sofa invites. With the hum of the engine to soothe you and the passing scene to occupy your eyes without demanding concentration, you will be the perfect receptacle for inspiration. Don't take paper or a recording device with you, though! You will only disrupt the Zen. And don't feel guilty if it doesn't work.
Jul '10
Re: Guilt, Illness and the Puritan Work Ethic
I have no experience with being seriously ill, but I do with prevention: BEER.
And lots of it. And regularly.