A Little Pick-Me-Up In the Midst of This Mess
The C-Virus mess continues. I need a little pick-me-up before heading for work today.
Continues? Wait. Isn't everything "re-opening"? Right. Except that's not exactly how it's been going.
In our neck of the woods, we're in "Phase 4" - sort of. The dictator Gov of our State and the head gangster (mayor) of our city decided to jam on the parking brake before taking the Phase 4 car out for a spin. Did you ever try to drive like that? It doesn't work very well.
Why a parking break? They're saying they want to "slow things down." COVID cases have been spiking in many states. So besides putting a 14-day quarantine requirement on anyone entering the hallowed canyons of Manhattan or anywhere else in the Empire State, it seems Phase 4 needs a harness. Slow down, you're moving way too fast!
Of course, looking at the stats, it's hard to see what's moving too fast:
Latest stats: Maybe 10% of offices are being used. 10%! And this is Phase 4? What about the other 90%? Apparently, when given a choice, workers choose to keep on keepin' on from home. Then, of course, you've got the ones who just have nowhere to work. (And there are lots of those.) No need for 'em; so the office buildings remain pretty much empty.
And let's not even mention restaurants and retail stores. Those two got the worst of it, it seems. One stat says around 50% of restaurants have already decided to throw in the towel - already. As for retail space, if they're not boarded up from the recent riots and vandalism, who's going shopping?
(By the way, you hardly see any coverage of the ruin the riots caused in NYC - or most other places for that matter. It's as if they never happened. But they did - which is why we've spent time on the social unrest that's gripped many cities and towns across the country.)
Anyway, you get the drift. While I keep the wheels turning in my small business, the gears need a little greasing. Add in the ongoing concerns with family, friends - even the Church - that we talked about last week and I need that pick-me-up to get on with the greasing of those gears today. So here goes...
Now my choice may seem a bit strange to anyone who's not Catholic. And let's not be surprised if even many of our Catholic brethren don't take to this. Why? It's about the Interior Life - something we've talked about many times in the past. The thing is, though, you hardly hear a peep about it these days. In fact, it would seem the Interior Life was a major casualty of the onslaught of modernism, reinforced by the infamous "Spirit of Vatican II."
The fact is, the Interior Life is both fundamental and critical to our spiritual lives. And, as we've seen over and over again, our spiritual life is critical to our work life. They go hand in glove - or at least they should.
So all I'm doing here is get back to basics - an approach that makes sense every time you're thrown off track at work or any other part of your life. And our Interior Life is as basic as it gets.
Now it's not unusual for me to try to bolster my Interior Life. But this time around something extra special was called for, given the whole C-Virus world mess. So I went for the gold. And for deepening your understanding and practice of the Interior Life, the gold standard has to be The Soul of the Apostolate by Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard. If you don't know it, know this: Pope St. Pius X kept a copy by his bed. In the early 20th century it sold hundreds of thousands of copies. And it's not just for popes, priests, and monks.
I had never taken the time to carefully and prayerfully read this great work on the Interior Life. I am now. Among other things, it forcefully reminds us that nothing good comes from us, but all good comes from God. Besides forswearing taking credit for anything good we seem to accomplish - a powerful source of humility - we rely totally on God. We trust Him totally. With our egos safely put out to pasture, we face the world without the pressure of relying solely on ourselves.
Good-by anxiety!
In difficult times like these, that's about as good a pick-me-up as you can get.
Continues? Wait. Isn't everything "re-opening"? Right. Except that's not exactly how it's been going.
In our neck of the woods, we're in "Phase 4" - sort of. The dictator Gov of our State and the head gangster (mayor) of our city decided to jam on the parking brake before taking the Phase 4 car out for a spin. Did you ever try to drive like that? It doesn't work very well.
Why a parking break? They're saying they want to "slow things down." COVID cases have been spiking in many states. So besides putting a 14-day quarantine requirement on anyone entering the hallowed canyons of Manhattan or anywhere else in the Empire State, it seems Phase 4 needs a harness. Slow down, you're moving way too fast!
Of course, looking at the stats, it's hard to see what's moving too fast:
Latest stats: Maybe 10% of offices are being used. 10%! And this is Phase 4? What about the other 90%? Apparently, when given a choice, workers choose to keep on keepin' on from home. Then, of course, you've got the ones who just have nowhere to work. (And there are lots of those.) No need for 'em; so the office buildings remain pretty much empty.
And let's not even mention restaurants and retail stores. Those two got the worst of it, it seems. One stat says around 50% of restaurants have already decided to throw in the towel - already. As for retail space, if they're not boarded up from the recent riots and vandalism, who's going shopping?
(By the way, you hardly see any coverage of the ruin the riots caused in NYC - or most other places for that matter. It's as if they never happened. But they did - which is why we've spent time on the social unrest that's gripped many cities and towns across the country.)
Anyway, you get the drift. While I keep the wheels turning in my small business, the gears need a little greasing. Add in the ongoing concerns with family, friends - even the Church - that we talked about last week and I need that pick-me-up to get on with the greasing of those gears today. So here goes...
Now my choice may seem a bit strange to anyone who's not Catholic. And let's not be surprised if even many of our Catholic brethren don't take to this. Why? It's about the Interior Life - something we've talked about many times in the past. The thing is, though, you hardly hear a peep about it these days. In fact, it would seem the Interior Life was a major casualty of the onslaught of modernism, reinforced by the infamous "Spirit of Vatican II."
The fact is, the Interior Life is both fundamental and critical to our spiritual lives. And, as we've seen over and over again, our spiritual life is critical to our work life. They go hand in glove - or at least they should.
So all I'm doing here is get back to basics - an approach that makes sense every time you're thrown off track at work or any other part of your life. And our Interior Life is as basic as it gets.
Now it's not unusual for me to try to bolster my Interior Life. But this time around something extra special was called for, given the whole C-Virus world mess. So I went for the gold. And for deepening your understanding and practice of the Interior Life, the gold standard has to be The Soul of the Apostolate by Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard. If you don't know it, know this: Pope St. Pius X kept a copy by his bed. In the early 20th century it sold hundreds of thousands of copies. And it's not just for popes, priests, and monks.
(And you may know that Pius X famously and vigorously opposed the modernism he encountered in his own time - early 20th century - which he knew would decimate the Church. Indeed, he succeeded in slowing the disease. But only for a while.)
Good-by anxiety!
In difficult times like these, that's about as good a pick-me-up as you can get.
Comments