DEALINES,STRESS AND OTHER JOYS

The newspaper business has been the greatest part of my working life. So it is difficult for me to work without deadlines and the stress. When I tell people that "stress " is my friend---they look at me and think that I am a crazy woman. (That last part may be true.)

I am sure that I must have come from my mother's womb with a pencil, pad and a watch.

I received a phone call from my brother in Wisconsin. He loves to start on me about retiring. When I told him that I was managing a team of women starting a new magazine project for my publisher. He had a giant fit on the phone!!! It went like this:

"Sis, don't you know that more stress is bad for you?"

"Of course, if I don't have my required amount of stress I go into stress withdrawal. Now we can't have that can we?"
On and on we went for 30 minutes. For me it was such fun and I'm sure that when my brother got off the phone he probably had to take a tranquilizer. He doesn't handle stress too well.

That it is a one of the gifts of life for me ,Mondays and Fridays are so chaotic at the newspaper and they are my favorite days of the week.

I did a lot of writing at home, so my workweek was down to about 55 hours a week. No stress in that!!

The secret, folks, is doing what you absolutely love. That way you can never tell what is work and what is play. For me it was great to laugh and play everyday and get paid for doing it.

The lessons about doing what you love were taught to me by a paraplegic friend. His legs had been twisted by polio and as I watched him each day drag his lifeless legs through the door, I was constantly amazed at his joy and hearty laughter. It cheered us all.

One day I told him how much I admired him as I watched him come into work. His reply was this: "Oh, Jean, I love my work. This is play. I lived in an iron lung for 18 months.
Now, honey that's work! " Right on, John, right on.