Divisions and Precisions

Seven Deadly What?

It's only Tuesday. It feels like Thursday. This is not a good sign.

It seems like no one wants to come to work anymore, so they don't. Out of six full time employees in this department, three have made it here with any regularity over the past two weeks. Tomorrow we're having a meeting to discuss "conditions of further employment", which I'm hoping sounds more ominous than it really is. We'll see.

I was lamenting to myself about the past year, which I spent in utter sloth. Believe me, I'm paying for it now that I'm trying to get more active. Bleah. Everything hurts.

But I digress. I think what I've been doing, looking back, is spending some time exploring each of the the seven deadly sins: pride, greed, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony and sloth. It's apparent now. Since about 1994, I've been spending approximately a year being the personification of several of them. Here's a recap:

1994 - Gluttony

After spending several years starving for life, for some sort of existence outside of a two-bedroom apartment in Martin, Tennessee, I spent a year going overboard with a lot of things. As if to make up for all the things that I didn't do during the last two years of my marriage, I tried to do everything. A lot of everything. Fun, but more than a bit crazed.

1995 - Lust

Once I settled in, back on my own and single again, I spent a great deal of time concentrating on my sexuality. Who I was. What I wanted. Who I wanted. This is not to say I went wild and was Miss Promiscuity 1995, I wasn't. I was practically celibate -- but not by choice. I had sex very much on the brain that year.

1996 - Wrath

My divorce was final this year. There was a lot of anger that bubbled out to the surface. Anger at Gary, anger at his parents, anger at things that were totally unrelated to him at all. Once it started, it was like a dam bursting. All the anger I'd kept in for years just poured out. This was the year Lisa learned how to get mad.

1997 - Greed

Hollingsworth and I were settled together this year, and I stopped working in child care and starting being the office drone I am today. And I discovered what it was like to have a paycheck that actually paid the bills. I was beside myself. More money. I wanted more money. I became more than a little fixated on how to earn more, how to save more, how to buy all the things I wanted to buy.

1998 - Pride

I was good at my job. I was the best at my job. Everyone at my job just needed to kiss my ass, I was so good. Said ass-kissing never came. 'Pride goeth before a fall', indeed. I was dethroned as the Queen of Services Reception. That's okay. I think I'm happier without that particular crown.

1999 - Sloth

Movement? What's that? Work? You gotta be kidding me. You want me to do what? I spent a huge portion of the last year sitting on my butt doing nothing but staring at a computer screen. At home, at work, wherever. Seriously. Oh, and sleeping too. Sleeping is good.

As you can see, that leaves only envy for this year. I find that worrisome, as that's how things have been shaping up. I think I'll cut this year short, like say... now. I'd rather not spend the next eleven months as the personification of the green-eyed monster. Feh.

I also find it a little scary, how well this fits. What started out as a rather tongue-in-cheek statement seems to have turned into a serious analysis of how I've spent the last six years of my life. And despite the framework of the 'seven deadly sins', I can see how each phase led into the next, and how each one provided some seriously necessary growth.

Yeah okay. Except for sloth. Posted by Lisa at October 26, 1999 07:06 PM