Dead In The Meat Department

Which of the following are not hints for the game Clue: Dead in the meat department, waiting for a liver, and, in the coffee kiosk with kidney failure? All three are stories of medical issues which I heard about in the last two days at work. My boss (the one I cussed at) is out waiting for a liver, one of our meat managers died while working, and my coffee tech was just diagnosed with failing kidneys. Each of these guys is under fifty years old. It reiterates the tension we live in and the platitudes we often hear about life and death.

“Nobody on there deathbed ever said I should have spent more time at work,” is the saying. We get near-sighted and lose focus of the important stuff like family and Sabbath rests, play and laughter. As I engaged in conversation today in the context of health and death it became apparent that many people don’t diffuse stress well. Work is their family, their paycheck and their ego. When the stress gets high there they have no place to go.

Humanity has always lived with financial tension. There is always difficulty on the home front; emotional, physical and spiritual. God established safety nets and watersheds for us to let go of these burdens. Granted there are times when like Job God is all you have. Those times are rare. In the broader context we have close friends and family to debrief and cry with and to bounce ideas around with. Laughter is always our best ally as well.

A co-worker said that the meat manager died because of too much stress in his life. The coworker was incorrect. Ruling out the physiological, the meat man died from lack of wisdom.