Juxtaposition

Three things going on in my life right now that are pulling me in wildly different directons:

My son is getting married.

I'm running for public office.

My Mother-in-law is dying.

That's three distinct events...all of the landmark in their own right and all three are happening at the same time. How can you "compartmentalize" three events so emotionnally dissimilar? Also, is it normal to even think about "compartmentalizing" those events?

There is a technique for dealing with all of this...it's called "living". That's all I can really do. Take each day as it comes, do what has to be done and move onto the next thing.

My wife is in a similar position...only her "third rail" is a high-pressure, responsibility-packed job. I'm quite worried about her because the emotions are running very, very high. A big part of my efforts for the next few weeks will be to be supportive of her....to help her get through these days as easily as possible.

I thought about complaining about not being able to experience the stand-alone emotions of joy for my son's wedding but I suppose the joy of the wedding will keep me from experiencing the stand-alone grief over my mother-in-law. Maybe the juxtaposition tempers everything....

Maybe it needs to be tempered.