True Vacation

I’ve been thinking about how vacation time has eroded and changed over the years.  I have been very active this summer with my robotics work, graduate schools, and some side consulting, as well as the usual emails and requests and memos I get from school even though I am not normally paid in the summer.  So I have been feeling that this vacation has not been the most relaxing one I’ve had.  Thinking too about our constant connection to the outside world, including our work life, via electronics.  Even our vacation houses are more like our normal houses, with TV, Internet, central AC. Basically, our vacation life is becoming not much different than our day to day life, maybe a little slower and in a different location. One of the nice things about the “olden days”, as my son calls the time when I grew up, is that vacation was 100% different.  No one could call us, there was no email, texting, etc.  I made  a point not to read the newspaper so I could totally forget about the problems of the world for a time.  Our cottages were very rustic and basic and very different from our regular houses. And we would spent tons of time outside, on porches, playing cards with friends and family and just handing out.  I suspect that we still need this kind of time but it is increasingly rare  to arrange it.