Vacations

It was a fitting topic, chosen for discussion just before the regular vacation time started up in Madrid, although I had already left for mine when the meeting happened.  My thoughts come after my vacation month.

Generally, we think of a vacation as a time when we travel to relax.  We unwind, we disconnect, we recharge before going back to the rat race.  Of course, not all vacations involve traveling, as many children at home during summer vacation well know.  So, changing locations must not be essential to the idea.  What may be the foundation of the experience is the break in routine.  The Organizer pondered this in his collection of thoughts for the topic, which argued the biological necessity of such breaks and bemoaned the fast pace of modern life and production just a bit.  The Philosopher also mentioned vacations as signs of a society that values its members, as guaranteed and legislated vacation is something considered a benefit rather than an inarguable need, such as sleep.

What makes a vacation different from other types of rest?  For one thing, a vacation spans days.  Nobody takes an hour's vacation.  We can suppose that the connection of travel and rest make this necessary, since many people travel to places that require hours to get to.  In many instances, these vacation destinations are natural areas, or at least less urban than where the vacationers are coming from: beaches, mountains, and campgrounds are prime examples.  In these places, travelers perform some physical activities different from those they might do everyday, or refrain from almost all physical activity as they lie on the sand, sit by the water or in a boat, or relax next to a campfire. 

There are also "cultural" vacations, however, in which travelers are given the opportunity to visit historic cities, full of museums and landmarks.  This type of vacation seems to be less physically relaxing, given that travelers are often required to tramp through streets and buildings, sometimes running to catch buses, or ascend towers and elevated geographic areas to observe and partake in the culture they offer.  If rest is a necessary component of a vacation, how can these trips be considered as such?  Maybe rest is only a possibility.  Maybe, as the Organizer mentioned, the real necessary ingredient in a vacation is the change in routine.  Whether a vacationer does nothing or tries a thousand activities, they are not what she does in normal life.  They can be hobbies she normally cannot dedicate much time to, sports or amusements she has no time to even try.  Most people who work 50 or 60 hour weeks long for a time to sleep in, to wake up without knowing they have to hurry somewhere.  On vacation, you can create your own schedule, and not feel guilty if you forget about it completely.  This is something different for a great number of people in our society, as they work for others and are responsible to them, so having greater control over their time can be a delicious change.

So far, we have said that a vacation can involve travel, might be based on relaxation, but is almost certainly dependent on being a change in daily routine.  Could we make the argument that by refusing to establish a routine we would have "vacations" everyday and be constantly happy and relaxed with our lives?  Not likely.  While humans do need time for recovery after making any kind of effort in their lives, there is also a psychological tendency to seek out and set routines for the majority of us.  We are pattern seeking animals that often find comfort in familiarity, whereas change is stressful and difficult to deal with.  Infrequent change, such as an annual vacation, is tolerable and even welcome because the stress of the change in habits is reinterpreted as excitement, and is of a different sort than everyday stress anyway.  Vacations are fun because they come after long intervals of routine.  "Absence makes the heart grow fonder," when we think of shaking up our daily habits.

Another question connected to vacations is that of happiness.  Most people imagine the perfect vacation to be one in which they do nothing, even if their real vacations are packed with activities.  Plenty of people even imagine the perfect life to be one free from effort, in which one can live slumped in a lounge-chair or sprawled in a bed while every need is filled by others.  Yet, we know that many people with the financial means to do so do not stop working or taking an active role in the world.  In addition, many people who do drop out of that kind of lifestyle do not seem to find happiness or satisfaction, becoming bitter and frustrated with their existence (and perhaps that of other people who do not automatically validate the loafer's as the center of the universe).  Cracked's list of things we might be surprised to find can cause happiness includes doing chores, as well as multitasking.  We might reason that this is because human beings like to feel that we accomplish things, since accomplishment is a sign of value and worth, something concrete that we can point to in order to promote ourselves to others.  Even if our accomplishments remain secret to all except ourselves, we need to have goals and projects to complete, the feeling that we have purpose and something to work towards.  Wait, what does this have to do vacations?  Sometimes the best vacation is not one that involves travel or doing nothing to relax; as pointed out above, sometimes it is that time we can set aside to focus on hobbies or interests that are normally afterthoughts or time fillers before we fall asleep to prepare for the next day's routine.