Oddly the reasons why I hate the Puritans have little to do with witch hunts, sermons about spiders, or even, mission style furniture (which, secretly, I love).
It's their damned "Early to bed, early to rise" crap.
The damned Puritan Work Ethic.
I'm sick of it.
This Ye Olden Work Ethic has stressed out my holidays, guilted my vacations, and currently is loading up my weekends.
I was raised on the get it done, make it work mentality.
I was raised feeling like it was bad to take mental health days.
I know it's not just the Puritans. My mom went to work at a time when so many around her judged her for not being a stay at home mom and when others judged her for her ability to keep up with the boys. As a result she has always worked. Weekends. Holidays. Nights, even when she got home from a long day of work. And during tax season? From January until April. As in, every waking second from January to April. I still can't fathom how she had both a February and April baby. I can't imagine her taking off from work long enough to go into labor.
My dad did not have quite so many societal issues but he wanted to make a name for himself. And wanted to buy a nice house. And pay for his kid's education (yay!). So he worked one job, and taught nights.
And when we vacationed? We listened to classic literature on the way up, were up with the sun each day, and many of our touristy activities were learning moments.
I was raised with the notion that work=life.
I still do this. I make vacation To Do lists and feel guilty any day that I am not grading papers.I don't even (really) like to sleep late. Any time after 9 and I feel like I wasted the day.
But I am learning to work on this. For once teaching The Stranger with his keep moving forwards mentality did not depress me.
And for once I will admit that one of the reasons I am a teacher is for summer. I think working 51 weeks out of the year is for suckers. I will admit that working 10 months is more than enough to keep me feeling fulfilled and like I am making a difference in the world.
And my new theme song for this...
