Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s look at the other irksome things about today’s Times story about Heather Eisenlord, the Skadden Arps associate who the firm is paying $80,000, or about a third of her base salary, to go away for a year while the economy (hopefully) straightens itself out.
1. That she “would like to teach English to monks in Sri Lanka.”
2. ” … and possibly help bring solar power to remote parts of the Himalayas.”
3. That “she fully intends to go back to Skadden after her trip, and will be eager to return to the work she loves and the co-workers she admires.”
4. That this woman and others like her are certain to produce a new wave of Eat Pray Love–style (but not as well-written) memoirs wherein the protagonists, having been forced to downsize during the Great Recession, relinquish their relationship to material things and Ultimately, Discover What Really Matters.
5. Which gives us a rash.
We know it’s wrong to hate someone for no apparent reason other than their lives are delightful, but we just can’t help it. MONKS? Really? Can she not at least teach lepers, or fat, hairy men with harelips? Surely they — and we — would appreciate it so much more.
