Tonight I'm working "the graveyard shift." As I write I'm asking myself two questions: 1) Why do they call it that? 2) Does that have anything to do with Recovery? I know, everything has to do with recovery, and if it doesn't we'll make it relate, as all of life IS recovery, amen? AMEN! Here's what a few people have written about THAT shift:
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Why is the phrase "graveyard shift" used for late-night work? Current popular explanations for the origin of the phrase "graveyard shift" reference the 19th century problem of accidentally burying people who were still alive. To prevent this from happening, the story goes, caskets were equipped with a bell-ringing device enabling a waking "corpse" to notify the world that they were no longer dead. The graveyard attendants who remained vigilant throughout the day and night worked the graveyard shift.
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: : : : : Does anyone know where this phrase came from? I think it means that people who used to work night hours became so sleep deprived that they literally dropped dead from exhaustion. Being that the world operates from 9 to 5 most people have difficulty adjusting to sleeping during the day and usually have business they need to take care of, therefore causing them to develop bad health from the lack of sleep, thus ending up in the graveyard.
: : : : I think you are close - but not quite right. I think that the statistic is that more people die of natural causes at 4 a.m. or thereabouts than at any other time of day. I think the expression came from that - probably either from nursing or the emergency services who would be called out to the recently corpsed. I think it may also have a derivation from "quiet as the grave". I'm sure that it did not refer to people dying because they worked at that time, but I could stand to be corrected.
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Interesting...in completing my first of a number of intern units at this hospital, I work the graveyard shift once every 10 days or so and it IS the shift that I have had the most calls where someone has died and I have responded as the chaplain on call. I guess that's where some major "recovery" issues begin to come into play.
1) Every situation is different but all of them touch on grief and loss...
2) Most of them begin to talk and deal with spiritual matters of this life and life after life...
3) There is often a deeeeeep peace, and even amidst the sadness---and often chaos and roller coaster emotions, there are expressions of heartfelt joy and hope...
So, grief and loss, spiritual matters, peace amidst the sadness, and even times of joy and hope...
The "graveyard shift." Our recovery. A time of death and new life.
addendum....I just have to add that as I finished this blog the chimes in the hospital, playing Brahms' Lullaby went off, signaling the birth of a baby on third floor. It's amazing how often during those calls where someone has died that those chimes begin to play.
Tags: GriefDeathLifeRecovery
