SLOTH

Traditional name: SLOTH
Better known today as: Whining

Traditional depictions of sloth are laziness, the person who doesn't do his or her job or attend to the household needs.

Ill-health can be a factor, and of course this is not a sin. The stereotype of the "lazy American sharecropper" had a lot to do with iron deficiency caused by hookworm, so much that the disease came to be known as "the germ of laziness." And depression will make a person seem lazy, which is part of the tragedy of the disease. There are many jobs, especially stoop labor and jobs in extreme or dangerous environments, which most people are unwilling to do, especially for the low pay which they usually offer. My own summer as a field laborer was among my worst experiences, though I think it would have been much more bearable if I'd been among friends or received even half of what was then the lawful minimum wage.

One of the things about today's developed world for which I'm most thankful is that pretty much everybody can find satisfying work. Not everybody is willing to do the same kind of work; for example, I won't garden, no matter what, even for five minutes. But I'll put in a 100-hour week doing medicine, and enjoy it.

We can know we have a problem with sloth when reasonable people start telling us to "Get a life." We do not have to work constantly. But the world is full of people who simply complain and do not take advantage of the many opportunities which life presents. And if you've been around ordinary criminals, you know how typical this is of their attitude.

I'll be a lot happier, and more fun to be around, if I grab some of the real opportunities that life offers. It's only hard for a few minutes.

Available: [online] www.pathguy.com

Published: Jan.30.2005

Accessed Date: 08.03.2011