A Shot Of Stress

It occurred to me recently that we're all stressed out. We talk about the stress of our job, the stress of family matters, money, health, etc. We massage our foreheads, let out exasperated sighs and exhale "I'm so f-ing stressed out." We live for the week that we get to go to Michigan every summer, foolishly thinking that this will rid us of all this dreaded stress. We're surprised, when we return, that all the sources of our stress are still resolutely in place, awaiting our arrival.

What do we do next? Well, we plan a bigger vacation, a more exotic vacation. If we can only get a little further out of town, perhaps staying a little longer, THEN things will be different. We'll undoubtedly return to our normal life with our batteries recharged. We're wrong, of course, but we still hold onto the myth like Harold Lloyd dangling from a Los Angeles skyscraper.

Back in the day, when our fathers were young married guys, I doubt that they ever uttered the "S" word. Their friends would've slapped 'em. They didn't bitch about their lives, because most guys were in the same boat. You worked ten hours a day busting your hump at the mill. You struggled to feed your family, hoping there'd be enough money at the end of the month to pay the next month's mortgage.

Guys like my Dad got thru it all by stopping at the corner tavern on their way home for a shot and a beer every night. Sure, they were stressed out, but they never let on. They sucked it up like the real men they were. They had a couple of belts and got on with their lives.

I'm sure it didn't hurt that when Dad got home, Mom had a big potroast waiting for him. The bullshit encountered during a day at the mill must have been a little easier to stomach when it was followed by a tender cut of beef and a pile of mashed potatoes swimming in butter and gravy. Who could be stressed out after a meal like that?

I propose, dear friends, that we rid ourselves of this demon called "Stress." I further propose that we apply ourselves at frequenting our neighborhood bars after work and that we indulge in consuming far more meat and potatoes than we currently do. Let's suck it up, old school, like our fathers did. Our cholesterol will be thru the roof, but we just may find a little f-ing peace in our lives.