Although I did not rest and refrain from work for the past two days as was suggested by my physician, the antibiotics and the expectorant seem to have directed the charge of troops in my immune system and focused their attention appropriately against the damnable foe bacteria that have attempted to take over. I am tired as hell, but am hopeful for a peaceful and quiet weekend.

As if the week was not hectic enough within our Department and University (final exam week.... with all the last minute scurrying typical of any place of academia), the "UnGrand Poobah" (aka Department Chair) of our Department decides to wield more of his mighty Napoleanesque nonleadership upon us with the chore of whittling down the 120 prospective applicants down to 5 possibilities for our new position. With tempers already near boliing, and moods as frayed as the arms of a Lazy-Boy rocker in a home with four cats, the thought of this horrible task appealed to no one (other than the UnGrand Poobah).

This leads me to the main thrust for today's entry.... I wish to publish a mantra that I keep trying to hold dear to my heart in times such as these. It is a true challenge for me to do so, but I *DO* firmly believe that if I could fully adopt this mantra, my life would be far more content:

IGNORE THE INSANITY !!!!!

For some the ideas of the mantra are self-intiuitive.... their personality and make-up precludes them from having that be a difficult idea to remember. However, for those of us in the "nurturing & caregiving" professions (which damn near are all health care workers, and virtually all teachers (K-12 especially but also many, many of us old duffer profs in higher ed too). Those of us who by nature or training adopt a work ethos of "trying to help", "trying to guide", "trying to instruct" are at grave risk for not being able to "ignore the insanity" for we feel it is our mission to try to fix what is wrong, to help others understand, etc.

The truth, however, is that outside of (in my case) my classroom or laboratory, I *DO NOT NEED* to concern myself with the bickering and arguing and sheer utter nonsense that ends up being damn near 50% of my time budget and likely around 75% of my physical and emotional energy budget each day. The unfortunate reality is that it is *EXTREMELY DIFFICULT* for people in the "nuturing & caregiving" professions to ignore conflict, to avoid those situations which are pointless to participate in. However, when I do ignore the insanity of the petty bullsh*t around in my Department every day, my life starts to become much more the Nirvana-like image I have always had for life.

More later, I feel I need a final pipe before I take a last dose of the expectorant tonight and head to bed. Perhaps if people are interested, I can try to be a bit more concrete and a little less obtuse in my meanings for the phrase "ignore the insanity".