But the topic here is work. Presently there is emotional turbulence at my job site. I work in an office and the majority of my coworkers are women. Two of the women, who up until last week were warm to each other, have suddenly turned ice cold. So today, Monday, the clerical bullpen, which is where we all sit, enjoyed a full-tilt "silent treatment."
"Hell is other people" is the famous quote from Sartre's No Exit. I would slightly amend it to read, "Hell is other people with whom one is forced to work." A lot of people -- I don't want to say most, though at times I think otherwise -- cannot comport themselves in a basically decent way. They're selfish, aggressive, deceitful, constantly projecting their pitiful dramas onto others -- all things which despoil the shared environment necessitated by work. The best way to deal with this never-ending toxicity is just to try to work. Any work -- sweeping the floors, photocopying, hauling trash to the dumpster, data entry -- is better than gossip or subterfuge. Of course it is never so easy as to be able to work in an unimpeded fashion. But as an imperative -- "Remember! Work!" -- is helpful.
So that's it for the first installment. At the end I will try to follow with an album in which I've immersed myself over the weekend. Music helps with the Hell Realm like nothing else. This past weekend it was Kenny Garrett's Beyond the Wall (2006). I've played it repeatedly and it keeps getting better. This is track three, "Qing Wen":
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