White Woman with a Graduate Degree Experiences First World Problems

To deal with her mom's death, Strayed goes on a hike of over a thousand miles to get in touch with her inner self. How wonderful.

When my Mom died (on a Friday) I was back at work 48 hours a week the next Tuesday because I had a wife and three month old daughter dependent on me. When my Grandmother (Mom's mother) had died five years earlier, Mom was back at work teaching a few days later because she had responsibilities.

I'm hardly jealous of White people (and I'm White, too) who respond to situations like this with acts of prolonged navel gazing. But I keep thinking about Cher's wise words to Nicolas Cage in MOONSTRUCK when she slapped him into the middle of next week and told him, "Snap out of it."

Anyone who's interested, here's how it works:
1. Suck in your gut.
2. Put your head down.
3. Tuck the ball under your arm.
4. Run like hell.
5. If somebody knocks you down, get up and repeat steps 1-4.