An old friend sent a note via Facebook the other wondering why I hadn’t been blogging recently. I should apologize because, after all, if your going to be “out there” you have to set a schedule and try and adhere to it.
The past few weeks have been made up of wall to wall days and some sleepless nights. It’s funny how events, activities and responsibilities creep up on you. I’m going to quote Sean Pennylegion of The Forest Festival again (I’ve used his quote multiple times in the past two weeks) because it is so true for so many Highlanders …. “we’ve got so many events and things to do that we don’t have time to go home”. And of course that means less time to blog ‘n things.
I think most of us, when we get involved, bring with that a commitment. The commitments we make result in a significant emotional investment. We want to do the best job possible, we want those we are working with, or working for, to be pleased with our efforts.
Physical labour can be very, very exhausting and, depending on your age, with appropriate rest you can usually come back at it the next day. Busy, active, emotionally invested people get both physically tired and mentally tired. I think its been proven that those in knowledge-based, mentally demanding enterprises suffer exhaustion that is different, but just as severe as those in labour intensive activities. I firmly believe that it is the emotional investment that is the tipping point. You load yourself up and up and up … and suddenly you are totally, physically and emotionally spent. Given a day or so of separation from the demands we can usually get back in the cage with the gorillas.
On the plus side, I don’t think you can do a great job on something unless you are emotionally invested. The trick, I suppose, is to know when and where to draw the line.
‘Scuse me, gotta go … there’s a hairy “gorilla” creeping up on me.
Mike Jaycock 