The fault in our stars

Are others to blame? Or is the fault somewhere else?

The demanding work hours of healthcare professionals are no secret. The ongoing pandemic has put the spotlight on them even more and has reminded of my time during community pharmacy practice. I’d like to share a mystery I helped to solve — why is the pharmacy full of people at 11.30 am on Sundays?

I remember how exhausting it was to stand behind the registry for a few hours in bulk. Everything was new; every patient was a learning experience. It was draining. By the end of my shift, I wasn’t able to process thoughts properly and felt so exhausted both mentally and physically. However, I was told that that type of exhaustion was nothing compared to the experiences of weekend shifts. The senior staff was carefully scheduled so that everyone had to work one weekend of the month and not more. The people who would work the weekend shifts would be in the pharmacy on Friday afternoon and the mornings of Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Those who had a free weekend had a pretty nice long one. But the people working the weekend shift would be working without a day’s rest for 14 straight days. Of course, the working hours were not as long during the weekend, and you had to be at work for 5 or 6 hours. Oh, but those hours were so exhausting. There were as many pharmacists as available registries, and they were always occupied. From the moment the pharmacy opened, until the moment it closed, they spent every second behind that registry. There was no time for food, toilet or any sort of break.

In my country, people usually believe that pharmacies need to be open on every day of the week because they handle emergency requests. In fact, there are designated pharmacies that remain open 24 hours. Outside of regular working hours (from 7 am to 8 pm) they should only process emergency requests. However, people often come with non-emergency requests for convenience and, well, a different perspective of emergency. The majority of other pharmacies which are open for the weekend, also remain open because a lot of patients find it more convenient to refill their prescriptions and make additional purchases on the weekend. At the same, the country is mostly Catholic, and many people believe that workers need a day of rest — Sunday. This attitude is based on many sources.

God himself rests: “He rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done” (Gen. 2:2)

The Code of Canon Law states: “On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are obliged to participate in the Mass. Moreover, they are to abstain from those works and affairs which hinder the worship to be rendered to God, the joy proper to the Lord’s Day, or the suitable relaxation of mind and body” (CIC 1247).

Although most people generally agree on this, the stores, restaurants, cafes and shopping malls are buzzing with people on Sunday. The economists warn that a lot of jobs would be lost if only essential businesses were allowed to remain open on Sunday. That’s a fact my mother had accidentally verified. She was also a firm believer in a Sunday spent in rest, so she felt the need to apologize for entering a bakery on Sunday. She was informed by the worker there that she should not feel guilty because he has a job only because the chain of bakeries he works in are open on Sunday.

It left her a little conflicted on what she should do next Sunday — stand by her principles or immerse herself in the realities of every day?

Some people believe the best option would be to encourage the staff who wants to earn extra to take up the weekend shifts, while others should be able to spend their every Sunday resting. My colleagues in the pharmacy did not feel particularly distressed by their work weekends. But there were some occurrences that left them puzzled. On one staff meeting, they felt the need to discuss a particular phenomenon — a crowded pharmacy at 11.30 am on every Sunday. The pharmacy was filled for the entire Sunday, but just before closing time, a considerable line would form in front of it. They were puzzled as to the way the local people hadn’t noticed this too and dispersed more evenly in the mornings. None of my colleagues were from the neighbourhood. I was. So I explained it to them. The Holy Mass of the nearby church ends around 11.30 am. People then flock from the church to the pharmacy. They did not feel compelled to comment, but I felt uneasy. As a Catholic myself, I wondered — How is it possible that the same people who firmly believed in a labour-free Sunday, crowded malls, cafes, restaurants, and the pharmacy I worked in, on the same day they thought were meant for family time.

I often find that a lack of curiosity and introspectiveness leaves people doing some quite hypocritical things. Simply, they do not take the time to reflect on their actions.

It made me think of my attitude. For example, I strictly avoid entering shops on Sunday. But I’m not above going to restaurants and cafes. Why is it that I find the designated time of rest for shopkeepers more valuable than that of waiters? Or am I intuitively better aware of the fact that cafes and restaurants could not maintain the same profit if they were closed on Sundays?

Perhaps, this issue is more of a political one than a religious one, although it is often displayed as such. I recently read an article on dr. Anthony Fauci. His parents owned a pharmacy store that was also located near a church and therefore had the highest earnings on Sunday. I wonder whether this was an issue for American Catholics? Are we all a bit hypocritical?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains, however, that there can be exceptions to the rule. Better said, it is more important to follow the spirit of the day, rather than its exact letter: “Family needs or important social service can legitimately excuse from the obligation of Sunday rest. The faithful should see to it that legitimate excuses do not lead to habits prejudicial to religion, family life, and health” (CCC 2185).

From the statement of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, it can be deduced that there is nothing particularly wrong with entering a pharmacy on a Sunday for non-essential reasons. However, when you realize that its employees would not have to work Sundays at all if traffic were low, the issue becomes a bit more complicated.

As faulty humans, we often seem to fall in the trap of the symbolic burning of effigies. We place the blame of the world’s wrongful ways on policies, politics, politicians, other people, institutions, big companies, small companies. The fault often seems to be in our stars but rarely in ourselves.

Recently, I watched the Netflix series “The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”. There is an episode titled “Kimmy goes to church” that explores the heights and depths of organized religion. I often find Christians negatively portrayed in contemporary filmography, but found this episode to have a fresh approach on the subject. In the episode finale, Kimmy speaks up in front of the entire church of the hypocrisy she encountered among its members. She stands astonished when people do not deflect from their mistakes, but rather admit them and ask for forgiveness. At that point, she realizes that the church is a place where effort is made to make people better through community and togetherness.

After reading this article, I hope it leaves you with a wish to see what you’ve done wrong, admit it and do better. Without the first two steps, it’s hard to accomplish the final one. I often find inspiration in the non-judgmental attitudes of my colleagues from the pharmacy. That’s something I work on and something that does not come easily to me. But I guess that after you know as many different lives as they do, you see that we’re all at God’s mercy. As for Sunday, I hope to make each one a holy day in my life, but also to be mindful of making it possible to be such for other people too.