Dan AE (After Employment) Journal - Day 13: Germ Theory
It's now coming up on my two week layoff anniversary. So far, I'd have to say I've actually been quite enjoying it!
Aside from the administrative tasks of reorganizing finances, insurance, retirements plans, health coverage and so forth, I've been finally able to devote good chunks of my day to pursuing things I've always wanted to do during prime hours: Catching up on reading, experimenting with new technologies and taking some some online courses (finally getting to officially learn swift to build iOS apps!) along with getting to spend some great guilt free daytime hours with my family. I am, however, quite conscious of the fact that I am right in the middle of the honeymoon phase of unemployment, if that's even a thing. Now that the news has been broken to my parents and in laws, that initial shock mixed with cautious concern and optimism will gradually give way to more overt concern and less optimism over the passing weeks with the lack of any new employment opportunities. Rationally I know this, but haven't figured out how to properly manage it, as it will be an ongoing challenge as this project continues. Perpetual awkwardness will have to do for now.
As I monitor my overall state of mind, I find that I must continually check myself to resist the temptation to revert back to previous patterns. This weekend I've already been surfing the job boards, even submitting several linkedIn applications for positions I know I do not like, but the pressure to do what is expected of me is starting to kick in. During this process, I couldn't help thinking of Ignaz Semmelweis, the doctor who discovered the disease-fighting power of hand-washing. An explanation is likely needed here:
As most already have heard the story in some form, Ignaz Semmelweis was the doctor who ushered in a medical revolution when he discovered that serious ailments and overall patient mortality rates could be drastically reduced by the practice of cleansing and disinfecting of hands prior to coming into contact with patients. While the results were that mortality rates were reduced to below 1%, he could offer no acceptable scientific explanation for his findings. His observations were also not in line with the established scientific and medical community, some doctors were even offended at the suggestion that they should wash their hands and mocked him for his ideas which were fundamentally rejected. It was only years after his death that the practice of hand washing earned widespread acceptance in the medical community after Louis Pasteur confirmed germ theory which we all know to be common knowledge today (and now especially present in everyone's minds over the last several months)
I have been theorizing the existence of a different kind of germ. One that is extremely contagious, is not detectable by any instrument yet developed by man and is unknowingly carried by the majority of people in the working world. This germ is the persistant idea that 'everybody needs to be employed at some kind of drudgery so that they may justify their right to exist'. It doesn't matter what you are doing, just as long as you are doing something, and for that something you should be getting paid. This idea is so engrained in everyone's psyche that much like Semmelweis' , rejecting this idea is guaranteed to produce open scorn and judgement from one's colleagues and family when one's thinking is not in line with the established docttrine. In much the same way, I have no acceptable scientific explanation for my theory thus far. I do hope that this experiment can be a test of a hypothesis, making a correlation between a practise and a consistent set of results. The practise in my case also involves a formal cleansing and disinfection in an attempt to drastically reduced instances of patient death. The infection we are attempting to prevent is not an infection of the body, but an infection of the soul.