Did The Rule of St. Benedict Help You Deal with these Distractions and Disruptions in the Workplace?
With our Stability Project now ended, this question naturally pops up: Did our extended reading and analysis of each entry in the Rule of St. Benedict help us deal with the distractions and disruptions we currently face in the workplace?
If you recall, we were particularly concerned with those distractions and disruptions that seemed to erupt with the onset of the Covid Mess that began in 2020. It began as something many of us considered pretty scary - the purported terrible Sars Covid 2 Virus. That evolved into lockdowns that caused some workplaces to go out of business, with the accompanying loss of employment for millions. Following this were vaccine mandates that caused further unemployment for those who refused to be jabbed. Most recently, there's been a dramatic uptick in disability and death, and a strong case can be made that the vaccines are the culprit. While people die all the time, or become disabled from accident or disease, statistics unmistakably tell us these numbers have risen dramatically.
Let's refresh our memories regarding the other distractions and disruptions we've been facing in the last two years or so:The war in Ukraine: It continues with no end in
sight. Since my wife is Ukrainian, so this has had a huge impact on our
personal lives.
Looking forward, we may want to steel ourselves for more war on this scale. Those who study "cycle theory" have posited that we have entered a "war cycle" that recurs in discernible patterns through the centuries. Not that wars by any means cease in the interim, but they tend to be fewer and relatively contained. If the cycle guys are right, we may be looking at 10 years of increasing conflict, some at the scale (or worse) that we've seen in Ukraine.
Inflation continues
unabated. Yes, it's increase slowed a tad recently. But remember, a slower increase
still leaves us with inflation. Despite the efforts on the part of the government and Wall Street to paint a rosy picture (which is, in both cases, in their own interest), we're hard-pressed to see how the theory that inflation will quell and be gone by next year makes any kind of sense.
Crime continues to plague major cities. Official in New York, our local haunt, have spit out all sorts of bromides that crime was mostly a result of the Covid Mess. But trends of higher crime began before the Mess, and haven't eased up since. Those are the facts. You know things are out of control when we hear those who handcuffed the police in recent years calling for stricter law enforcement and a reversal of the "judicial light" laws that release virtually every sort of felon within five minutes of arrest. With increased drug use, mushrooming of the homeless, and the proliferation of emotionally disturbed people wandering the streets, we're in the thick of a trend that won't be easily reversed.
Social and cultural deterioration - a much longer-term trend - has taken a huge toll on young, old, rich, and poor alike. While there's been some recent pushback by concerned parents who want to protect their children from the depredations of
various "progressive" elements whose agenda is to drag our innocents
into a moral sewer, much damage has already been done.
For most of us, these distraction don't manifest themselves within the confines of the workplace. Of course, if you're an EMT or police officer, you're seeing the worst of the worse every day. (We should pray for those who have to work in such surroundings.) But the average person working indoors, staring at a computer screen can keep all this at bay with a little control of thoughts and emotions. Nevertheless, the effects on our lives, on our family and friends, can't be entirely separated from our daily labor. We may be able to segregate our work to some degree, but it's not uncommon for some spillover to occur.
For example, a loved one recently contracted a rather serious disease. (And there's some likelihood it's onset was the result of having gotten jabbed and boosted with the mRna "vaccines.) The worry and concern are not far from my thoughts and feelings as I work my way through the day.
Perhaps Lent can help a bit here. If we're struggling to keep our Lenten discipline, we're likely going to gain some strength in our ability to keep our thoughts and emotions in check. That helps us to remain focused on our work. We can also offer up our consternation over these distractions and disruptions, along with our struggle to keep Lent as perfectly as can, even during the work day.
St. Benedict might agree, I think.
We adore Thee O Christ and we bless Thee
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