The Lazies

We all know someone like this: "I know I I haven't put the hard work and effort into it; hell, I haven't even lifted a damned finger, but I want that thing, give it to me."  Or maybe someone like this: "She asked me to clean up the house and have dinner started by time she got home but I just couldn't get the energy up to do it and ended up sitting on the couch watching re-runs all day." We've all had our moments of laziness, usually it is well deserved after months of hard work, stress, and overtime, but after a day or two we get back to work.  Then there are those people who are chronically lazy and regularly cause added work and stress to the lives of those around them.  Doesn't it just make you want to slap them?  They're too lazy and irresponsible to get off their ass and do their job. So we, the dependable and responsible ones, have to pick up their slack. 

It is no doubt that laziness is an epidemic of huge proportions.  There are as many causes of laziness as there are lazy people.  Maybe these lazies were "just raised that way", they learned the behavior from someone they grew up around.  Or their parents always did everything for them and they never learned independence and responsibility and how to work for what they need and want.  It could be a side effect of illness.  Depression, chronic fatigue syndrome, PMS, diabetes...there are a million illnesses that could cause one to become characteristically lazy. A poor diet can cause laziness, and a lack of exercise can cause it as well.  It becomes a vicious cycle, energy begets energy therefore laziness begets even more laziness.  Or maybe these lazies just don't give a shit about anyone or anything but themselves and they are self important people with delusions of the entitlement to not have to lift a damned finger.

We can't escape the horrible effect these lazy people have on those closest to them.  When you have to share a home with a lazy person, or have a co-worker who is profoundly lazy, the resulting negative emotions and psychological effects can be downright murder inducing.  The carelessness and disregard lazies indicate through their actions (or lack there of) that leave more work and stress for their fellow man can cause a loved one or co-worker to feel used, unloved (or just disliked in the co-worker instance), and disrespected.  Inevitably these thoughts and feelings lead to a meltdown, confrontation, or other painful reaction or retaliation. 

How do you cure laziness?  It seams the cure lies within the lazy person.  Only they can cure themselves.  One must develop the ability to care and the desire to move.  One must realize their importance to others, that they are relied upon to pull their own weight as well as to support those around them.  One reason we are social beings and go through the trouble of coexisting is so we can help one another, not so we can have everything done for us. 

Stress, That Bitch

   It is a strange and annoying phenomenon how every stressful requirement comes due all at once.  The need to deal with such things as appointments with government departments such as EDD or the DMV, work and/or school projects, cleaning the house and other important tasks and errands, all come and weigh on us at the same time.  Is it a psychological reaction to stress itself,  "I need to get this one very important thing done."-  leads to thinking and stressing about everything that needs to get done? Or is it that everything really does just so happen to rain down all at once?

   The feeling of utter relief and a sense of accomplishment sets in almost immediately when we realize we were able to get everything done.  This doesn't always happen though; sometimes we can't get it all done or something goes wrong that complicates and ruins all our hard work. Or maybe it just doesn't seem to ever end.  Once we make a little headway in our long list of get-it-done-nows, another task or two gets added to the list.  The desire to just give up, it will never get done so why even try, is a strong one.  Most of us persevere despite our depression and sense of dread and overwhelming exhaustion.  We all have our reasons for not giving up: pride, family that relies on us, the fear of the consequences for not fulfilling our duties...

  Some people thrive on stress while others crumble under the weight of it.  There is always that one person we all love to hate who seems to holler "Stress?  Oh yeah, baby, pile it on some more! I can handle it!"  God, we'd just love to deck that overachieving try-hard...mostly because we envy their ability to actually handle the stress and get it all done.  Most of us fall into the other category. We silently suffer and scream to ourselves, "Please, God, just make it all go away!  I need a break!"  No matter which of these categories we might fall into there is still one more category that both the handle-it-wells and the sufferers hate even more than each other, the "Stress?  what stress?  I have never experienced this thing called stress." kind of person.  They seem to have never had to try or be responsible for anything in their lives.  Everything good just falls into their lap and God forbid anything unfortunate should come their way.  I think we all agree, those people need to die in a fire.

   There are a million different quirky coping mechanisms that people use to deal with their feelings of stress.  Smoking, fits of rage, drinking, exercise, drugs, nail-biting, nervous talking, crying, hot baths, sex, pacing, twitches, music, gaming, gambling, eating and/or cooking, cleaning, cutting...well there are just way too many to list.   It is interesting to sit back and watch people in public places, you can so easily pick out the different quirks that manifest when they are under a lot of stress.  Try it sometime.

   The reality is that stress will always be in our lives, there is no ignoring it.  There is no escaping it. In the end all we can do is sit back and take a deep breath.  Take it one day at a time, the stress we feel today, the problems we face right this moment honestly, probably, most likely, may not last forever.