Lessons From A Sick Day

March 15th, 2008 at 07:16am Keith Hemstreet 8

“Did you exchange a walk on part in the war, for a lead roll in a cage?”
-Pink Floyd

These days life moves at hyper-speed.  I constantly feel as though I am racing to complete one task just so I can move on to the next.

When I walk through town, I do not stroll.  I speed-walk.  I don’t have time to stroll.  I am never caught up.  There are always things left undone.

But this week nature put the brakes on my frantic pace.  I woke Wednesday around 4 AM, vomited and continued to do so for the next six hours.  Thus, I was quarantined to my bedroom where I spent the day and night lying in my bed.

I called in sick to work.  I cancelled a meeting I had scheduled after work.  I took the stack of paperwork I had set near my computer and put it in the closet.  I couldn’t stand looking at these papers, piled high and undone, literally screaming for my attention (that’s Feng Shui 101, folks).

Suddenly, my day was free and clear.  I had nothing to do, but be sick.  Oh, the potential, I thought.  A day to myself.  All work and responsibilities on hold.  The things I could accomplish, if only I didn’t feel like I was going to die.

I pulled a novel from my nightstand, opened it to the first chapter and read.  Before I finished the first paragraph, I dropped the book, utterly exhausted.

There was only one activity I had the strength to attempt, television watching.  I tried the news.  There was a story of bombs falling followed by a story of disease followed by a story of adultery.  It was just too serious.  I needed something simple, mindless, easy to digest.

I settled on E! Entertainment and watched a reality show whose subjects were so narrow-minded and vain it made me angry.  This program was looped with commercials showcasing Paris Hilton and Britney Spears and other incomprehensible American icons.  I became disgusted.

Moving on, I landed on MTV where I watched, that’s right, more reality TV.  Again, I was sickened by the imbecilic mindset of those featured in the program.  Is the media who develops programming for America’s youth trying to promote sex, cattiness and obsessive materialism?  If so, I offer my congratulations.  They are succeeding in spades.  Every kid in America now wants a nose job, fake boobs, a mansion in Laguna, and a shiny car with some sweet rims.  As for the real problems this generation will face, well, they really don’t give a shit.

I’ve digressed.  My despair over America’s youth is not the point of this post.  It’s my despair over America’s middle-aged.  Our workaholic propensities.  Our constant movement.  Our inability to stop and smell the roses.  We are far too consumed with the things that aren’t really important.  Maybe the answer is to take more sick days, when we aren’t actually sick.

Entry Filed under: Health, Media, Aspen, People