Low Level Anxiety

Today I spent a couple of hours tweaking a financial structure that could save a company tens of millions of dollars in income taxes. I also spent an hour trying to find a round trip flight to Chicago that cost less than $500. (If I violated the travel guidelines, I would have to answer lots of questions, and it’s wise to avoid the hassle.) Clearly, one project was more important, yet policies demanded I spend time on both.

These days it’s extremely rare for anyone to have the luxury of working and worrying about a single task. Police officers have to work overtime typing reports. Surgeons have to answer questions from insurance companies. Outstanding teachers must publish on obscure topics that are of interest to nobody. We may be good, even excellent, at our specialties, but rules and regulations require that we be minimally competent on a host of other matters. And one never knows when a minor slip-up in a neglected area can mushroom into a crisis, e.g, unpaid homeowners’ association dues resulting in the seizure and sale of a house.

The Good Book says, “Be not therefore anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?”, but it’s not the lack of food or clothing that is causing my low-level anxiety (unless it’s lawyers bearing suits!).