I’ve felt very isolated during the pandemic, despite using social media more than I ever had before. We’ve seen a sacrifice of quality time for quantity time in recent years, leaving us feeling more isolated, and our addiction to social media plays a huge role in that. In this post, I contemplate my own priorities and whether I’m up for a new approach to my connectivity.
While working through this series, it became apparent that the issue was bigger than that of having or not having kids. In our very divided world, it seems like part of me wanted to close out this series with an attempt to find some common ground between two polarizing figures and their very different philosophies. This week: how moral development plays into the picture.
I’ve asked some friends probing questions about Catholicism and Objectivism over the last few weeks to make sure I was interpreting Pope Francis and Ayn Rand correctly for the arguments I’m putting forth in this series. But they had some questions for me, which made me realize I had to examine the context of a third person for this series: the author.
Over the past few years, several people I know have been washing their hair less often, usually about once a week (as was done in the 1950s). I have taken this trend to the extreme, mostly to see what would happen. Is it possible to retain a professional (or at least socially acceptable) look without washing your hair for two years? I like to think so.
So often in the corporate world we link busyness with value. As a manager, especially in a remote work situation, I try to stress that results are more important than image, and that productivity is a function of self care. Eighteen months into the pandemic, my team practically shoved me out the door for a vacation so I could finally practice what I preach.
Burnout is real, and time off is important. But, the way I do vacations, I usually come back more exhausted than I left. Christian and I took two weeks off for a road trip to visit friends and see the West, and we might be on to something with a more realistic pace, more unstructured down time, and more schedule flexibility than we’re used to.
With age, I have come to appreciate well-made products that keep ergonomics in mind. One such product, a “kneeling chair,” showed up in an online ad. I was skeptical but did some research about its benefits and decided to try it out. My parents got me one for Christmas, and it has been a welcome part of my home office ever since.