"Is it possible to work yourself to death?

The answer is yes. In fact, this cause of death has a name: karoshi in Japan; guolaosi in China. Both translate to "death from overwork," and the diagnosis is no hyperbole in Asia, where it's a serious public-health problem.

But surely, our enlightened Canadian economy doesn't drive workers into the grave . . . right?

Maybe. Experts say that while the situation in Canada is not nearly so dire -- people aren't dropping like flies at their desks -- our careerist culture is causing a slow-motion karoshi epidemic, in which work-related stress takes a gradual and deadly toll on our health."

The text above appeared in the August 26th Globe & Mail in an article entitled "The Graveyard Shift". Apparently, we Canadians are slowly, methodically working ourselves to death.

Do you find yourself irresistibly drawn to your e-mail? Can't fight the siren call of your cell phone/pager/wireless device? Take this quick little quiz to find out just how much time you have left on this planet:

FOR EACH OF THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS, GIVE YOURSELF A SCORE FROM 1 TO 5:

Never = 1

Rarely = 2

Sometimes = 3

Often = 4

Very often = 5

1. How often have you felt overwhelmed by how much you had to do at work in the last month?

2. How often have you felt that you didn't have time to step back and reflect on your work?

3. How often have you felt overworked in the past month?

4. During a typical workweek, how often do you have to juggle too many tasks at the same time?

5. During a typical workweek, how often are you interrupted during the day, making it difficult to get things done and get out of the office?

6. How often do you talk to (or BlackBerry or instant-message) co-workers, managers, or clients about work-related matters outside normal work hours?

7. While you are on vacation, how often do you do any work related to your job, such as calling into the office, checking e-mail, packing projects, etc.?

RESULTS

7-10: Margaritaville. Congratulations, you seem to have a good handle on the demands of your job -- or maybe you're retired.

11-14: Cottage Country. Keep up the good work. You are managing your career in a way that minimizes feelings of being overworked.

15-20: The Backyard. Although you're experiencing only average levels of being overloaded, there is still room for improvement.

21-25: Traffic Jam. You're are more overworked than most employees, and you know that can't be good. Stop and smell the roses, already.

26+: Sweatshop: Your non-stop working may have seriously negative consequences -- for your health and job performance, not to mention your sanity and your social life.

Richard, Ridley & I paid a visit to my family in Oakville last weekend. My brother Jeff and sister-in-law Nuala happened to be visiting from Ottawa, so it was a good opportunity to hook up and show off young Master Ridley. Here's a couple of snapshots, courtesy of Jeff. The first image is myself flanked by my Mom (left) and Nuala (right). Next we have the Linton-Martins. And lastly, the young Master Ridley himself, workin' it for the camera. Again.

Dear Blog,

So sorry to have neglected you over these past few weeks. It's not that I don't cherish our time together. I do. I just felt like we needed a little time apart.

It's not you, it's me.

Jen.

Theatrics aside, it truly has been quite a while since I've contributed an entry to these bloggish pages. To what can I attribute this laziness? Perhaps the heat of the Toronto summer? (I never could get a handle on those sticky, humid days of late July - early August.) Maybe. Or perhaps there just wasn't much happening in my life on which to report? Nah, definitely not that. This summer -- more so than many previous -- was a busy one indeed.

Firstly, there was my solo exhibition in Toronto at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery. This opened June 22 and closes next week. The JMB is a fairly prestigious venue which, regrettably, is often sparsely attended as it is tucked away in the bowels of Hart House and thus well off the beaten track for most Toronto art patrons. Ah well. Yet another notch on the bedpost of my art career. (Ha! I wish! Likening my art career to a bedpost sounds more salacious than it is true ... it more closely resembles a slow-moving oxen cart than a notched bedpost).

At the end of July, my second solo show of the summer opened at Alternator Gallery, an artist-run centre in Kelowna, British Columbia. This exhibition featured the work from the "St. Ursula" series which I created 3-4 years ago. I flew out to Kelowna to attend the opening reception and deliver a brief artist's talk on the work. (Yes, the photo at the beginning of this post is a panorama of Kelowna ... I bet you were wondering when I'd get around to explaining the significance of that image.) Of course, the actual artwork didn't arrive in Kelowna until the day I left home for Toronto, but that's a long and frankly uninteresting story.

For me, Kelowna was four days of relaxation and respite from my motherly duties, as husband and child remained at home in Toronto. Highlights of the trip include swimming in Lake Okanagan and lying on the adjacent beach (see photo of beach above), listening to the conceptual sound art piece which was performed live at the reception, attending the Duotone arts festival/exhibition/live band schindig, and last but certainly not least, hanging out with Katherine, the exhibition coordinator of Alternator, and Bernard, a Belgian artist and one-half of the conceptual sound-art performance duo. They are both pictured on the left. The three of us attempted to visit an Okanagan winery, failed to do so (another long story) and instead held an impromptu barbecue of west coast salmon.