Attached to the wall opposite the toilet in the bathroom when I was growing up was a placard. It had a picture of a cute, slightly cartoonish boy sitting on a chamber pot. Next to him was a roll of toilet paper. Within the family it was a matter of no small speculation as to whether the chamber pot or the toilet paper was the anachronism. But neither the picture nor the anachronism was the point. The point was spelled out in bold blue letters:
The job isn't finished until the paperwork is done.
If you work for the government, a large corporation, pay taxes, or were born in the last 100 years, you are familiar with paperwork. It is the most virulent and vicious plague of the modern era. Forget smallpox, polio, ebola: They only kill you. Even a mild exposure to paperwork will cause you to long for death. But death will not come. It may not be a surprise to you, but more Americans commit suicide on April 15th than any other day of the year.
Okay, I made up that little factoid. But you have to admit there's a ring of truth to it.
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