It's strange to notice the shift in stress and tension when it finally reaches the point that quitting everything and running away starts to seem like the easier and more appropriate course of action.
While I'm usually glad to hear of friends finding coping mechanisms that work for them, in this case I don't think gladness is quite the order of the post. I think the contextually appropriate response in this case might be nil bastardo carborundum. In case your classical training hasn't prepared you for the pithier forms of Engineering Latin, that roughly translates to "Don't let the bastards grind you down."
I've been hearing very encouraging reports on the personal rewards of aid work in Uganda from old friends currently thus engaged ...
... Vous verrez du pays (du moins c'est ainsi que finit la version de mon père; à propos, non?)
It certainly is much easier to say than to live, but I think the point of the maxim isn't so much to counsel you to saintly patience (which would be borderline offensive, under the circumstances), but to allow and encourage the development of a carefully controlled dose of legitimate anger. Enough to help you survive and stop caring about the things you can't change (emotional detachment is hard; being pissed off is much easier and a pretty good cure for perfectionism). At least that's how we used it in Eng. Sci. :-)
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I've been hearing very encouraging reports on the personal rewards of aid work in Uganda from old friends currently thus engaged ...
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Figuring out the next step (probably not Africa, tempting though it is) and trying to live into this new motto. Which is easier to say than to live.
Rengagez-vous, qu'ils disaient. Rengagez-vous...
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It certainly is much easier to say than to live, but I think the point of the maxim isn't so much to counsel you to saintly patience (which would be borderline offensive, under the circumstances), but to allow and encourage the development of a carefully controlled dose of legitimate anger. Enough to help you survive and stop caring about the things you can't change (emotional detachment is hard; being pissed off is much easier and a pretty good cure for perfectionism). At least that's how we used it in Eng. Sci. :-)
Take care.
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