April 17, 2011
My eyes cracked open around the usual time, when there is just enough sunlight to let me know that, as my father would say, “I’m burning daylight.” I’m pretty sure the fusion reactions at our little star won’t burn out in my lifetime but the expression still gets me motivated not to waste the day.
“Not many days off before I leave for Australia,” I think to myself and all the preparations begin.
You ever set aside a good full day for a stroke of yard work and have it foiled by a large rainstorm? I have. Today though the rain has stopped for the morning and I think I’ll throw on some mudders to deal with the soggy terrain. My parents are actually arriving from their two week layover in L.A. after Dad decided it would be a good place to make sure he can breath well. A story for another time.
Now, what the hell could I possibly need to do today to prepare for this trip? Well, for some reason I feel like I need to make sure the lawn is raked and mowable, firewood put away, the barn cleaned out of the chicken explosion, the spare bathtub-sink-woodstove taken to the salvage yard, snowblower summarized, cedar trees planted, kitchen painted, trim done in the family room, and the floor grouted in the dining room.
Clearly I won’t be very concerned with the condition of this estate upon touching down in a world of interests for me that includes Aboriginals, crystal waters, large formations of rock, international cities, funny sounding English speak, and this blog. However, there is that feeling like there will be less on my shoulders if my affairs are a little bit more in order. Where does that come from? Who taught me that I need to have a groomed lawn to leave the northern hemisphere?
Maybe a better question is from the previous entry: Why do people need to go on vacation when they are living perfectly happy and fruitfull lives?
Need is really a strong word, it makes me think of a more basic level, similar to survival. However, I’ll keep it because I think I need a vacation. I need the latitudinal escapism. That makes us human right? We have this weird adaption in this animal world that we label consciousness, it lets us have this thing we call personal awareness, we create this system of immaterial beliefs and values we call morals, we impose all of this on ourselves and others through culturalization, and before you know it you wake up one day and you can’t survive without having a number 2 from the McDonalds extra value menu, you are sitting in front of a computer screen clacking away at keys for 9 hours a day, and you are spending your family time in front of the TV for 4 hours every night wondering how you are going to afford that new fuel efficient hybrid vehicle and Macbook you’ve had you eye on because you want to reduce your impact on the environment and you deserve better computing power.
The scenario actually doesn’t sound that bad to me. Family, delicious breakfast sandwiches, NY and Hollywood produced stories on TV, a sweet steel unibody laptop, and a fossil fuel using vehicle that uses fossil fuels more efficiently. I’d take it in a heartbeat. And who wouldn’t? America is a wonderful place to live and I’m so thankful that I was born here and have the protections afforded to me by the constitution.
Anyways, the point I think I was getting to was about the need for vacation. Which, for me, I see as a move to step out of my routine, my American routine, step out of my daily thought patterns of what is acceptable and not acceptable, step out of the comforts of my Macbook and my hybrid, step out of the twitter painted Spring Air of Cortland County, step out of my wonderful occupation as a manager of a man made aquatic environment, step a really big step back, actually fly to the southern hemisphere where the water runs the opposite direction down the toilet bowl, and look back at it all with a big freaking telescope, to see the truth of it all.
Maybe that’s not what everyone vacations for. Perhaps rest, family time, excitement, adventure, sex, alcohol, drugs, lack of work, etc. I work at a vacation destination and I see all sorts of motives for vacationing, and they are all valid in their own rights to be a motive. For me, I’ll probably actually work just as much while I’m vacationing, sleep less, talk just as much with the people around me, and write a heck of a lot more than I do in my regular routine. Why?
Why treat a vacation like that Jared? Why put yourself through the pain of examining, documenting, festering, and discussing? I find some sick enjoyment out of it, I think there is something wrong with me. I can’t get old man Socrates out of my head, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” I believe there is always something I could be doing with my time that works to improve the lives of my great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great granchildern, instead of taking away from them. Not that I think I’m going to save the world anymore, got over that at age 22, but maybe there is something I could do to atleast live in harmony with it. Maybe if that were already happening, harmony that is, I wouldn’t need to take a giant steel bird to a continent half a world away to figure out what is going on in my life. Maybe, I’d already know and be contented in it. If not contented, capable of doing the examining from the comforts of my Earthship lounge chair.
