Have you ever wondered what we did before we had e-mail? Having recently returned from a one-week vacation to 994 e-mail messages, not counting those that were immediately recognized as junk or a couple other special sub-headings, I found myself working up a blister on my mousing finger while weeding the CIALIS ads out from the important communications about my projects.

Here's the rub - anymore, when a tech worker goes on vacation, they have to work all the harder when they return. As our understanding of appropriate response time keeps shrinking, the pressure of taking time off grows, until a vacation is really just an independently-hosted work event.

For a change it was my wife who had to be on the receiving end of about a dozen cell phone calls, none of which lasted shorter than 10 minutes (that was just the calls that made it through, since our cabin didn't have cellular coverage and thus only during our vacation events was it possible to call), and for the first time I developed an understanding of how aggravating my on-calledness has been in the past. Held prisoner in the car right outside the restaurant, vacation ease was interrupted by the gnashing of the underfunded university machine, and instead of being able to enjoy the time with the kids, my wife was there, laboring mightily with her virtual wrench to get the teeth on the gears to mesh together again and thus keep the place going.

Is it modern hubris to be so connected to our workplace that it casts a shadow over what you do even so far away? I don't think so. I think that we have a displaced notion of what is truly important, and where our work ethic needs to be applied. So many times in the past, when I have been on call and have answered and fixed and co-stressed about issues, it has been my devotion to the work ethic of my upbringing that has kept me there, patiently working until something was fixed. As appreciated as that has been, and I truly work with some good people who do appreciate those efforts, something has been remiss.

I have confused my job with my life. My job is where I put in hours each day so that my family might eat well, have the things that they need, and have many things that they want. I have been guilty in the past of treating my job with devotion and fervor and my family and relationships with dismissal and ignoring. Clearly that is a wrong priority, because my real job - that job that I was singularly given responsibility to do, that no one else in the world can do quite like I can, that God has shaped me and forged me for as part of His plan for me, is to be a husband, father, son, brother, friend and mentor. To work at those things is the true job that lays before me.

Since that revelation and the subsequent considerations that I've made, it has become easier to walk out on time, and to leave things undone sometimes. To that end, I submit this passage:

Today is composed of three parts...
There are ten hours which are tied up with bringing material blessings into the household - an hour to prepare, arrive, and return home, and 9 hours of tasks to complete.

There are 7 hours which are tied up with sleep, where my ever-aging body repairs itself, and my thoughts and musings try diligently to settle down so that my sleep is as restful as it can be.

There are then 7 hours remaining during which I must do my real job. I must provide contact with my children so that when they are older they do not feel cheated by me, I must provide soulship with my wife so that she does not become heartsick with loneliness and so I do not develop an attitude of dispassionate brokenness of connection, I must provide service to God so I do not become selfish and withdrawn into my own little corner of the world, I must provide friendship so that I am not seen as disinterested or cold. I must provide contact with my family and with my friends so that they do not grow cold at heart.

From which period should I then steal time with which I can do additional work? Will anyone at work remember me clearly when I have been gone from there a decade? If what I call loyalty causes me to steal from my health, or from my family and friends, then isn't that a conflict of morality, where I give and tax in the same step?

We can never forget that the process of technology growth was originally meant to simplify life. The good news is that it can once again be used for that purpose. We just need to have enough people realize that and act on it, facing the future unafraid as we turn off our phones and refuse to answer e-mails after hours. It is the fear of that corporate weasel down the hall who will take our leads, or work overtime to impress the boss, or who will insulate himself against layoff at your detriment that causes this problem. Fear not! If we invest in our health and in our family and friends, then the rest doesn't matter.

We need to join together and refuse to participate any longer in the increasing pressurization of life at the hands of a bunch of wires and worries. If we are bold, and if we have our heads screwed on straight, then we will be healthy, wealthy, wise, and possessors of a weaselskin rug, from a certain weasel who thought that work was all there was to do. Let's all do our jobs with intelligence, efficiency and restraint.