Crisis Orientation
The physician says I have a "Nervous Prostration"
Possibly I have - I do not know the names of sickness. The crisis
of the sorrow of so many years is all that tires me.
-Emily Dickinson
Physicians have invented many erudite and confounding names for women who work themselves into a complete frazzle. We spend our lives moving from one crisis to another. As a matter of fact, we have become so competent at handling crisis that we feel most at home in the middle of one. If the truth were known, we women who do too much often create a crisis when things are going smoothly. When things are quiet, we keep waiting for the other shoe to drop and we feel relieved when we have a crisis to be managed. We know how to do that.
SERIAL CRISES are exciting, and they are exhausting. I don't want crisis to be the origin of yet another medical label nor do I want the 'sorrow as so many years' to weigh me down.
