"Sick with It" - Commentary by Tony Seton

Sick with It

If we were doing It right, we wouldn’t send children to school or ourselves off to work if we weren’t feeling well. Not only would we want a speedy recovery from our afflictions, but we would also want to avoid afflicting others...on the school bus and the commuter train, in the classroom and the office.

A friend just emailed a quote from Erma Bombeck’s If I Had My Life to Live Over, written after she was diagnosed with cancer. It read "I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren't there for the day."

I canceled a trip to Massachusetts for the holidays. There was going to be the traditional seasonal thang, coupled with a quiet celebration of my father’s 80^th birthday. Quiet because he’s a quiet person who actually expected to be dead 25 years now, and he probably doesn’t want to invite the attention of those who schedule the mortal coil shuffle.

It was because I was feeling ill that this whole issue of are-we-nuts? came to mind. First, the idea of being with a planeload of people in prime flu season wouldn’t have had appeal even if I were feeling tip-top. They check for boxcutters, but not for hygiene. There are no requirements that people wash their hands, especially after taking off and putting back on their shoes, and you just gotta know that most everyone at the airport was out sick the day they taught children to cover their mouths when they cough or sneeze.

Then I received a message from a lady who apologized for not getting back to me a day earlier because she’d been ill and was just regaining her voice. She was back at work because she had a project deadline. Not only do we all lead our own tangled webs, but they are inextricably entwined with others’ plans and expectations.

Hey, wake up. Dollars are on the line here. People need to push themselves harder. Load up on meds, stiffen the upper lip, and stop whining.

Or maybe not. What would happen if we were more flexible in our schools so that students who needed more time to take their instruction could do so without succumbing to some relentless Draconian schedule. After all, a lotta people now take five years instead of four to complete college. And on the job, wouldn’t things would proceed a lot more smoothly if people were working a 25- instead of a 40-hour week.

I must be delirious with fever.

And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.