A relatively quiet Thursday, I think, was a welcome relief to internals. Work was stagnant,largely because I worked my ass off on Wednesday and the email server was choking much of the day (big influx of junk in the last hour, but it was all junk), which I’m not going to complain about – I needed the mental disengagement, and honestly took a little of the quiet time to finish reading another novel.

As many Americans have long understood but only recently started talking about, most of us, at least in these white collar, information-driven professions, don’t consistently need forty-plus hours a week to get our work done at a more-than-acceptable level of quality. Sure, there are periods of exception, but honestly, a lot of those heavy periods are due to inherent time-wasting built into the American corporate mindset and way of doing business. Meetings that could’ve been emails, repetitive memos, idle gossip, interruptions, shifting processes, etc…that’s what’s keeping the status quo in effect.

So much of it is driven by the Calvinist work ethic many European settlers brought over with them hundreds of years ago (and much of Europe has pretty much abandoned). Even if we don’t need to do so (and we really don’t), this country puts a ridiculous amount of value on appearing to “work hard” and be “busy”, but it’s really all about appearances, because deep inside, even if we’re in denial about it, so many of us understand that we can get everything done we need to in way less than eight hours a day at the office (I’ve seen the network logs – mindless internet surfing is real and unavoidable). This bullshit is baked into that ridiculous concept of “American Exceptionalism” and our need to appear “special”, but the only people we’re really convincing of our so-called specialness is ourselves; the rest of the cohort that makes up the industrialized world is looking at us and laughing while they take their long lunches in a charming sidewalk cafe someplace.

I really hope that this “Great Pause” as some folks are calling it (I’m personally not sold on the name, but I like this perspective on it) causes us to think about how we work in this country. Things unthinkable even ten years ago (UBI, a system for national health care, student debt relief), all tied in some way to work-life balance, are being tossed around by the most conservative to some extent. These ideas, along with our realization that we’re all still getting our jobs done at home while dealing with all the other bits of angst associated with the current quarantine conditions, in way fewer hours than we thought or convinced ourselves we needed.

Less time at work has all kinds of health and wellness benefits, and much of the rest of our peers over in Europe have figured this out, and the populations are, arguably, healthier and happier. I’m really hoping America gets ‘rona shocked into realizing this too.

I say I hope, but I come awfully close to having those hopes dashed when I look to Michigan, Ohio, or even right up the road to see people who don’t value human life over economic concerns (even though in most cases, they’re the ones whose lives are likely to sacrificed on the altar of the free market), but really, I think it’s mostly about “owning the libs”.

….

In any case, thanks for reading my disjointed stream-of-consciousness Friday ramblings on the state of things. It’s what I do when I’m waiting for people to answer my emails.

As for the weekend, you know where I’ll be, because if you’re smart, you’re doing the same thing and staying home. I do have to make a grocery run, which I’m not looking forward to, really, but it’s unavoidable. Otherwise, I’ll probably play video games, enjoy some craft beer, cook something or other, do some laundry, and clean my fish tank.

The primary Humdingers are taking advantage of empty streets to shoot footage for our video for “Blind Pig”, and I’ve got some instructions for putting together my part of things, so I’ll probably get on that too.

Anyway, tunes. Decently energetic this morning, lots of chunky guitars and power pop, which, if you know me, I’m totally okay with.

1. “Close To Me” – The Get Up Kids
2. “Plastic Skeletons” – Jealous of the Birds
3. “Tiger Lily” – Luna
4. “The Golden State” – John Doe
5. “Expect the Bayonet” – Sheer Mag
6. “Plenty for All” – Hot Snakes
7. “Thorn In My Side” – Quicksand
8. “Something Bigger, Something Brighter” – Pretty Girls Make Graves
9. “Kodachrome” – Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band
10. “I’m An Adult Now” – The Pursuit of Happiness
11. “Drown” – Son Volt
12. “Good Good Things” – Decendants
13. “Faster” – Manic Street Preachers