Desperate with guilt

The Catholic faith, as so many people know, has a knack for instilling great amounts of guilt in its followers. The Jews like to think that they do it better, but I can speak from first hand experience that the Catholics are number one in the guilt department.

I say this because even though I no longer consider myself Catholic, I still feel the Catholic guilt on a daily basis. Take today for instance. I woke up this morning not feeling very well; sore throat, a little achy, general malaise. Incidentally, I also have to work tonight. Rather than just call in sick, sit myself on the sofa and watch non-stop episodes of Desperate Housewives, I paced the living room debating whether or not I was sick enough to call in. I got online and searched for my symptoms. Could I be contagious? Who would take my place at work tonight since I'm suppose to be in charge? I worried that I was letting everyone down if I called in sick and ended up really not being all that ill. What if they found out? I would feel their eyes staring at me as I went back into work, their thoughts silently saying 'He wasn't really sick! He looks fine to me!'.

You see how that guilt works?

Ultimately, I did decide to call in sick. I justified my action to myself by saying that I only called in two times last year and that I would hate to get my coworkers sick. I don't feel completely guilt free, so I guess I'll just have to do some penance on the sofa while spending some time with my favorite residents of Wisteria Lane.