Pain and Suffering at Work
Propelled into the New Year by last weekday's and this past Sunday's posts, we continue our theme of pain and suffering, now applied to our work. If you've experienced or are now experiencing pain and suffering, and have to drag yourself into work today, you'll likely identify with some of the following.
I suspect any of us can come up with many examples of not only stress, but pain and suffering on the job. And while New Year's resolutions and plans typically don't dwell on such "negative" matters, the fact is they're out there, at times revealing themselves slowly, at times pouncing in the twinkling of an eye, as was the case with our eldest son's devastating injury and subsequent death.
At work, pain and suffering can come physically, mentally, emotionally, even spiritually. I can point to a number of incidents in the past where pain accompanied me to work, most prominently lower back pain, upper back and neck pain, and knee pain. However these injuries occurred, they were not enough to keep me at home, so off to the job I trudged, at times with my bottle of Advil. A few times, they've followed me into a New Year. For a number of years, my once-chronic upper back/neck pain would arrive dutifully at year-end. January 2nd found me nimbly walking and wincing my way into the office. Once or twice, it seemed to portend a bad year. (But, of course, that's just my Southern Italian background interpreting the data, embedded as it is with centuries of my peasant forebears enduring invasions and oppression.) Typically the year turned out to be like any other.
One memorable bout of pain on the job: an injured left knee, requiring me to wear a an ace bandage for almost a year. Given that my commute at the time required taking trains that were accessible only by climbing long flights of stairs, each day provided ample opportunity for offering up pain for the Holy Souls in Purgatory. The coup de grace was the 2003 blackout in New York. I was working on the 33rd floor of a high rise building in Manhattan and had to walk down to street level. As I landed on each step, no matter how gingerly I descended, the pain I felt was like a hot knife digging into my knee. It was slow going. I'm wondering if offering all that up might have freed at least one soul from Purgatory! Reaching street level, given that there was no public transportation running from our downtown location to where I could catch a bus home, I knew I had a walk of several miles, carrying my rather heavy bag. More souls freed?
Physical pain that's intense or chronic can easily also involve mental fatigue and confusion, along with emotional swings - which of course compounds the experience.
Difficulty with mental acuity caused by the drain of physical pain can devolve into a kind of mental pain. Heck, I've occasionally been so exhausted from some extended bouts of intense labor, especially when accompanied by physical pain or discomfort, that thinking brings on a really severe headache.
Emotions, of course, frequently have a life of their own. Unstable or debilitating emotional states don't necessarily need to be triggered by physical pain. I've worked with people who were constantly on the edge of emotional crack-up. Any little thing could trigger it. One boss of mine, who was fairly reserved and buttoned up, would at times flash a dark expression and go right over the edge at something that in and of itself appeared relatively innocuous. I suspected that, beneath that placid corporate exterior lay a tortured soul - for whatever the reason.
In really extreme cases, particularly those involving relentless chronic pain, there's the threat of discouragement, despondency or even depression. Here the spiritual life comes under attack. This can, of course, be the worst of all the sorts of pain. When the spiritual life is compromised, undermined, turned inside out, our trust in God's mercy and providence can be weakened. We may even lose our faith.
I bring all this up not to put a negative cloud over anyone as we forge ahead in the New Year. The point here is that some of us (count me in) face pain and suffering at this time. As we head off to work, we carry that pain and suffering with us. Perhaps, today, we can offer some special prayer or sacrifice for those among us facing this special challenge to their New Year at work.
I suspect any of us can come up with many examples of not only stress, but pain and suffering on the job. And while New Year's resolutions and plans typically don't dwell on such "negative" matters, the fact is they're out there, at times revealing themselves slowly, at times pouncing in the twinkling of an eye, as was the case with our eldest son's devastating injury and subsequent death.
At work, pain and suffering can come physically, mentally, emotionally, even spiritually. I can point to a number of incidents in the past where pain accompanied me to work, most prominently lower back pain, upper back and neck pain, and knee pain. However these injuries occurred, they were not enough to keep me at home, so off to the job I trudged, at times with my bottle of Advil. A few times, they've followed me into a New Year. For a number of years, my once-chronic upper back/neck pain would arrive dutifully at year-end. January 2nd found me nimbly walking and wincing my way into the office. Once or twice, it seemed to portend a bad year. (But, of course, that's just my Southern Italian background interpreting the data, embedded as it is with centuries of my peasant forebears enduring invasions and oppression.) Typically the year turned out to be like any other.
One memorable bout of pain on the job: an injured left knee, requiring me to wear a an ace bandage for almost a year. Given that my commute at the time required taking trains that were accessible only by climbing long flights of stairs, each day provided ample opportunity for offering up pain for the Holy Souls in Purgatory. The coup de grace was the 2003 blackout in New York. I was working on the 33rd floor of a high rise building in Manhattan and had to walk down to street level. As I landed on each step, no matter how gingerly I descended, the pain I felt was like a hot knife digging into my knee. It was slow going. I'm wondering if offering all that up might have freed at least one soul from Purgatory! Reaching street level, given that there was no public transportation running from our downtown location to where I could catch a bus home, I knew I had a walk of several miles, carrying my rather heavy bag. More souls freed?
Physical pain that's intense or chronic can easily also involve mental fatigue and confusion, along with emotional swings - which of course compounds the experience.
Difficulty with mental acuity caused by the drain of physical pain can devolve into a kind of mental pain. Heck, I've occasionally been so exhausted from some extended bouts of intense labor, especially when accompanied by physical pain or discomfort, that thinking brings on a really severe headache.
Emotions, of course, frequently have a life of their own. Unstable or debilitating emotional states don't necessarily need to be triggered by physical pain. I've worked with people who were constantly on the edge of emotional crack-up. Any little thing could trigger it. One boss of mine, who was fairly reserved and buttoned up, would at times flash a dark expression and go right over the edge at something that in and of itself appeared relatively innocuous. I suspected that, beneath that placid corporate exterior lay a tortured soul - for whatever the reason.
In really extreme cases, particularly those involving relentless chronic pain, there's the threat of discouragement, despondency or even depression. Here the spiritual life comes under attack. This can, of course, be the worst of all the sorts of pain. When the spiritual life is compromised, undermined, turned inside out, our trust in God's mercy and providence can be weakened. We may even lose our faith.
I bring all this up not to put a negative cloud over anyone as we forge ahead in the New Year. The point here is that some of us (count me in) face pain and suffering at this time. As we head off to work, we carry that pain and suffering with us. Perhaps, today, we can offer some special prayer or sacrifice for those among us facing this special challenge to their New Year at work.
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