Spring Cleaning: What I Found When Looking for Something Else

• Pages: 32-33
• Date: 01 July 2021
• Author: Joseph P. Beckman
• Subject Matter: Civil Law

Published in Litigation News Volume 46, Number 4, Summer 20 21. © 2021 by the American Bar A ssociation. Repro duced with permissi on. All rights reser ved. This informati on or any portion the reof may not be copie d or disseminated in any

form or by any means or sto red in an electronic da tabase or retrieval sy stem without the ex press writt en consent of the Amer ican Bar Associatio n.

MENTAL HEALTH & WELLNESS

By Joseph P. Beckman, Liti gation News Asso ciate Editor

Spring Cleaning: What I Found When

Looking for Something Else

I

have to be honest. I have been sitt ing staring at a blank

screen for three s traight days. I am “off my ga me.”

This column is goi ng nowhere. Maybe it is time to cash

in my chips and tal ly up my losses.

Seriously. I cognitively know “thi s too sha ll pass.”

I know I will feel be tter when I ni sh my draft like I a lways

do. Nonetheless, I a m not feeling like w riting this colu mn.

I wonder, “Why so blue?” I reach for a gratitude e ntry and

come up empty. It has been a “meh” month at work on multiple

levels. I get that it is most ly “lit tle things.” April’s billable hour

to non-billable hour ratio is at a les s than A+ level. A couple

of clients whose high ex pectations some may consider, um,

perhaps “a bit much” are “helping” more than feels be necial.

Regrettably, work is the hig h-water mark at the moment.

Of Course, It Get s Worse

On the home front, I am  at out exhau sted. I have slept in

my own bed maybe ve time s in the last six weeks. This is a

by-product of a temporary but nonet heless “new normal.”

I am helping a delightf ully athletic, driven, intel ligent, yet

boundary-push ing medical professional recover from a com-

pression fractu re incurred on the rst day of her semia nnual

“girls’ ski trip.” Emergency su rgery followed and, thankfu lly,

all is well, med ically. No matter how hard I tr y, I seem to do

more things “wrong” i n my part-time Florence Nighting ale

gig than rig ht.

Alas, I am an overach iever when it comes to nding things

that are negative in my li fe at the moment. A diplomatic

characteriz ation of our domestic engineering ski lls would

likely rate my home as a “Felix Unger,” and hers would come

in closer to an “Osca r Madison.” As such, while I bite my

tongue, spendin g extended period s in her home causes my

involuntary “Unger mus cle” to spasm spastically. Just below

the surface, I a m living in domestic chaos and silently si m-

mering toward a rolling b oil.

When I rush back to my place to fe ed the cat I have been

“temporarily” (going on t wo year s) sitti ng, I encounter a sec-

ond female who appears u nhappy. She shows her displeasure

in any number of ways, includ ing breaking a nd entering into

new sources of food in my abs ence.

© Getty Image s

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