The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Salem, Oregon

OVERWHELMEDITIS

The Reverend Richard R. Davis

March 7 2010

            Many years ago, during my student days in Atlanta, I worked for one of the major companies that ships things around – it wasn’t Federal Express, so it must have been the one known by its three letter acronym - the one that used to advertise that they “ran the tightest ship in the shipping business” and now asks “what can brown do for you?”  

            My job was to stand next to a conveyor belt and pull off all packages going to Florida and load them in the truck behind me.  It surely must have been humanly possible to do this job otherwise they wouldn’t have expected one to do it, but this particular human being could not pull it off.  I tried my best, but I was constantly having to run down and grab packages that got past me and go to the end of the conveyor belt and rescue packages that had fallen on hard times – that is, the concrete flooring.  It was physically overwhelming work. 

One night a box came down the belt that was dripping some kind of gooey liquid – it was headed for Florida and I dutifully grabbed it and loaded it on the truck.  A bit later I felt a burning sensation on my arm and looked to see that the sleeve on my coat had dissolved – it was gone, eaten away by some acidic chemical.  I took this as a sign that I should dissolve my connections with my employer and did so.  Let me hasten to add that I have no hard feelings toward this company – it just wasn’t a good fit for me.

So, I left that job, but I did not leave behind the feeling of being overwhelmed by so many things that come down my way on the conveyor belt of life.   In fact, I may as well confess to you that I suffer from chronic “overwhelmeditis.”   Officially, that’s not a word, but I suggest we add it – in these overwhelming times we could put it to good use.  Simply put, a person who has overshelmeditis tends to feel perpetually overwhelmed in the face of life’s many tasks and challenges.  I don’t think I’m the only one here who has this condition, otherwise, I’d just keep it to myself. 

Now as the world’s leading authority on overwhelmeditis (at least for today) let me note that there are three basic types of overwhelmeditis. First there’s the objective kind which is when you actually do face overwhelming demands, obstacles, challenges and odds -it’s an objective fact. 

Some of you here who work for the state government are feeling that right now.  Due to budgetary constraints your hours of employment have been reduced, but your workload has stayed the same or perhaps even increased.  Studies so show that American workers are more productive than in years past – we do more work and spend more time doing it than workers in most other countries.  Why? Because it’s expected and demanded of us, especially now when so many employers have “downsized” and those who still have jobs must absorb the extra duties of those who were fired. 

This is really tough, and there is no easy cure for the objective variety of overwhelmeditis.  The long term historical prognosis is not entirely bad, however.  My hope is that over time that government, business and the citizenry – not just here but in all countries - will recognize that no one really wins a rat race, not even the ones who scurry across the finish line first.  The destructive social and psychological costs of overwhelming demands on workers is incalculable.   The dehumanizing social, political and cutthroat economic forces that have led us to this place should be questioned and challenged, again and again.   We are not cogs in a machine – we’re all people deserving of a good quality of life.

Yet you must be cautious about where you point the finger of blame when dealing with overwhelmeditis.  Consider the second basic type of overwhelmeditis – behavioral overwhelmeditis.  I know several people here, perhaps including myself, who suffer from this variety.  It begins innocently enough: You are asked to do something or you decide on your own.  Then other projects land on your plate.  It’s getting pretty full.  Next, someone asks you to help with some volunteer project and you just can’t erect that boundary called “no” because you want to be helpful.  You know the rest of this story – over time the plate gets way too full and you resolve not to let that happen again, but it does.   “When will I ever learn?” you ask yourself.  Well, it may be that you enjoy being busy and maybe that’s not so bad.  Or, maybe you can learn to stretch your interpersonal comfort zone a bit and learn to advocate for your own legitimate needs.  

Yet there can be a real problem here.  You may get quite good at saying “no” and reducing your workload and doing less in general, but, still, that feeling of being overwhelmed won’t go away.   This is subjective overwhelmeditis – which is to say, the feeling of being overwhelmed has taken up permanent residence in your mind – this condition is often chronic, debilitating and causes untold suffering.  

If you do suffer from subjective overwhelmeditis blame it on the devil.  You say you don’t believe that there is some malignant trans-psychic personality in the universe called the devil or Satan?  Well, you may be right about that, but no one can contest that there is within us all this internal voice that does a damn good impersonation of a devil; it’s a true master of deceit – and the primary victim of that deceit is you and me.   So, for today, let’s call this inner voice the devil.  In doing so we may be standing on shaky theological ground but pretty solid psychological ground.  Calling this inner voice “the devil” allows you the opportunity to get some distance from it.   And let me tell you, the devil doesn’t like it when you do this which is why the French poet noted that “the devils most clever ruse is to convince you that he doesn’t exist.” 

Now let me tell you this devil is a very fine preacher of deceit, and here’s why: She (or he) is a masterful practitoner of the primary principle of prevarication, the major modality of mendacity (lying), well understood by demons and demagogues of all ages.  It’s called “the big lie.”  Adolph Hitler described it as a lie so "colossal" that no one would believe that someone "could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously."  Big lies, told over and over again by our inner impudent devil, worms its way into the heart and mind. 

So what’s the big lie that this devil preaches to those of us suffering from subjective overwhelmeditis?  This devil preaches variations on the theme “you have too much to do and you can’t do it,”  “you’ll never get this done,” “why bother?,” “it’s hopeless,” “you don’t have what it takes – you’re not smart enough, good enough, strong enough to do it.” 

This devil is also a very astute psychologist – it knows that the best way to win you over is by stirring up your feelings -  it’s true: if you feel some way you’ll often assume those feelings are telling you the truth about your life.  So, if this devil can get you to feel overwhelmed, you’ll assume that you actually are overwhelmed.  Now feelings have an important role – they can be barometers in helping you judge the atmosphere of your life; but feelings are terrible masters.   If you let your feelings always rule the realm of your life you may well end up in a dungeon of despair or anger or fear. 

I do hope that you believe what I am telling you, not because someone in a pulpit is preaching it to you.  Some big lies have been told many times from many pulpits.  Beware of the sermons you listen to – whether they come from the outside or the inside.  Judge for yourself whether they are true. 

And once you’ve discovered that a particular type of sermon isn’t true, stop listening to it.  As a chronic sufferer of subjective overwhelmeditis that’s what I’ve learned to do, and I can report some promising results.  Yet when you stop listening to this sermon be forewarned:  the devil preacher may change tactics and become a raging fundamentalist, preaching that you are literally helpless in the face of the overwhelming tasks that await you.   Ignore all fundamentalist preachers.  They lie. 

Alas, I this fundamentalist devil preaches to me every time I start to write a sermon, which has always felt like an overwhelming chore to me.  So I have learned to stop writing sermons.  I gave that up some time ago.  It’s like this – I recently heard a famous novelist being interviewed and he was asked how he manages to write all those novels and he said that he doesn’t write novels.  He writes pages.  One, maybe two a day.  So I don’t write sermons.  I write paragraphs – about a page a day.  It’s still hard but it is manageable.  So the lesson here is don’t spend much time looking at all you have to do.  Just do one thing you have to do.  When you get that finished, if there’s time and energy, do another. 

When you’re doing the task, focus on the task and do it mindfully, and you’ll discover a paradox often overlooked in our multi-tasking age.    If you give up caring how much you get done and just do something with mindfulness and gentle perseverance, you’ll actually get more done than if you have in mind all you need to do while you’re working.  That just makes you feel frantic, rushed, time starved and distracted and you can’t do good work with that state of mind. 

Do this and you will have defeated the devil of overwhelmeditis.  But wait!  – no, he (or she) is adaptable and now appears preaching the gospel of perfectionism.  Don’t fall for it.  It’s a trap.  Perfection is just an ancient Greek philosophical concept that has infected our Western psyches, often with dire results.  Perfection is an impossible fiction that has no bearing on our lives.  There is no perfect.  Trying to do or be perfect is a perfect trap.  You’re doomed to fail.  Just do your best, with the gifts you have in the time allotted.   We do your best work when we don’t look over our own shoulders scolding ourselves “but it’s not perfect yet.” 

Instead of aiming for perfection, why not have fun and enjoy what you’re doing?   At the mention or thought of fun, the devil preacher steps into the pulpit to remind you that life is serious business and you’re not here to have fun but to do hard work because there is so much that needs to be done.

Now this devil, who is very clever, is correct on that score.  There is a lot to do.  Yet there is a lie couched in the middle of the devil’s claim here.  You see, she (or he) wants you to believe that you must be like a God and do everything and control all outcomes.  News flash!  You’re not God. I am. Wait!  I didn’t mean to say that..  I’m not God either but I sometimes forget and get seduced by the notion that I have to act like a God of my universe.  Updated news flash.  You and I are not God.  We don’t have to do it all, nor do we have control over it all.  Do your best, then let it go.  Remember, as the poet Milton reminds us, the devil was once an angel who thought he should be God.  His expanded ego became so huge and heavy that he plunged into the depths of the abyss.  On the other hand, G.K. Chesterton reminds us that angels can fly because they take themselves so lightly.  They know how to shrug off feelings of overwhelmeditis.

The good news is that you and I can shrug off those feelings too.  Quite frankly, it needs to be done because you and I are just not that much fun to be around when we are feeling perpetually overwhelmed.  People who perpetually feel overwhelmed folks are not happy and can get pretty snippy.  Yes indeed.

So, let me be honest here.  I wrote this sermon to work through my own feelings of chronic subjective overwhelmeditis.  And it helps.  It’s good to be reminded that life need not be spent under such a dark cloud and that we have the power to move out from under it.