187. Level Field

Greetings, readers! It is 2021. We have evicted the worst tenant of the White House, we are vaccinating millions of people a week and everything is getting better! Except me. I’m still a lousy husband. 

I’ve been a bit worse, since I’ve been working on a vaccination clinic in my town. It’s the hardest, most stressful task I’ve ever done. And I can’t have enough of it. Unlike many of my previous roles, what I am accomplishing is immediately observable: Shots in Arms. It’s way better than my typical reward of “someone may eventually use this knowledge to on occasion do something potentially useful.” 

This makes me understand doctors and nurses a bit more. It’s hard to not be a workaholic when what you do is help people stay healthy. It also makes me understand burnout more. I’ve worked 3 weeks with two and a half days off. And I’m itching to go back tomorrow. This is unsustainable, and it will change soon, but I can see why it’s hard to stop.

As for my marriage, it will be fine. We are learning to work with my reduced hours at home and my exhaustion upon arrival. We are learning a new rhythm, a new language. 

We’ve often talked about this, my wife and I, about our different love languages. Her love language is doing things for each other, my love language is language. And touch. Having a successful marriage is about learning a new language and adapting to it through the years. So there you go, some of you are bilingual and didn’t even know it!

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