In those far-off days (circa 1971 - 77) of labouring in factories and industrial cleaning (when not goofing off at school and university) I would never have believed that office work (as performed by the middle-classes) involved any kind of physical strain. And now I know a lot more about it I know it doesn't really. Well, not teaching anyway. Except for niggling little pains and physical irritations.
Like shoulders aching from holding them too tightly, as my shoulders are now doing. It's not exactly painful but it hurts, if you see what I mean.
Generally aching shoulders aren't a problem for me at all, in the ordinary run of things. But when I unconsciously hunch up over the old laptop the folly of doing so can leave its mark. Over time I've come to realise that I need to consciously relax when throwing myself into that kind of work - like getting entangled in e-mails, so generally I avoid the problem. But I've come to realise over the last few days of examining for the oral component of my subject that when I'm engaged with my students in their one-on-one recorded presentations I get extremely tense physically, but not mentally, as if in sympathetic response to the pressures some of them feel.
Much as I've generally enjoyed listening to what they have to say I'll be happy when it's over for them. And even more so for me, just to be more than a bit selfish.
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