When I first learned Thoreau could just walk home I was disappointed. He pulled a classic writer move and somehow I feel he did all this to escape some relative versus a true commitment.
In this research did you happen to discover trends of vacation time? You mention the two weeks in August but I wonder if Americans had more or less vacation time some time ago.
Most starting companies, 2 weeks is the max vacation. Which, once you start spreading it out over the year isn’t any time at all.
I can see how you’d feel that way about Thoreau. He is that kind of writer who inspires and also incites anger, because like Whitman, he allowed himself to live a contradictory life, espousing one thing and doing another… and flopping around as he wrestled with his ideas. But always walking, man was he a walker… the people who really moved to the cabin in the woods inspired by Thoreau were Harlan Hubbard and his wife… they were legit.
I didn’t look so much into the trends of how long people had for time in the past. I do know we don’t really have much at all compared to Europeans unless you have been with a company or institution a really long time, and often then, the better vacation time plans were older ones, and people sometimes got grandfathered in… that’s just anecdotal.
Two weeks isn’t nothing. I work with a lady who started here in her late fifties, now in her early sixties. Likely won’t be able to retire for awhile and with kids spread around the country. So what to do with those two weeks needs to be carefully calculated.
I guess if you are going to blame Scientology on someone, it could be the FBI. I think Hubbard was working on them as an investigator into cults when he got the idea of “now that I know a thing or two about cults, why not start one of my own”(… and if Xenu or any Scientology lawyers are eavesdropping, that’s not a direct quote… its just some shit in my head.)
I might have been wrong about him investigating cults FOR the government... but it is indisputable he was involved in Thelema (more to Thelema and Jack Parson's shame than Hubbard's IMO).
Great exploration, Justin. I absolutely agree that we're going to have to adapt and adjust, and our summer vacations are going to have to be a part of that.
I agree about focusing more on locality and community. (Then again I think any way we can possibly return to these is going to be important going forward.) Other cultures in more tropical climates have as part of their routine a rest period during the hottest parts of the day. Heck, any retirement neighborhood in Florida would show you the same: no one risks a heart attack or a stroke by mowing their lawn past 10AM. I think it's time we started adapting similar practices in the rest of the country.
Yeah, I was going to write more about the practice of siesta, but didn’t get into it here, mostly for space. Locality, community, solitude -these things, I think, can guide us like the string leading through the labyrinth.
Good stuff! I’ve taken “stay-cations” for years. I always loved Thoreau’s takes on vacation. I didn’t know about the field trip origins and it’s connection or the edu-tainment lectures
Same! We like to do long weekend trips that are also within two to three hours away. We’ve visited Cleveland, Toledo, Louisville, on the urban side of things, and different state parks and camping / cabin sites on the more rustic side. I still like to travel further, but know it’s not something I will do every year.
Yeah, I didn’t know that either, until around the time I wrote that article and was also doing some reading on the Transcendentalists, so tied it in.
When I first learned Thoreau could just walk home I was disappointed. He pulled a classic writer move and somehow I feel he did all this to escape some relative versus a true commitment.
In this research did you happen to discover trends of vacation time? You mention the two weeks in August but I wonder if Americans had more or less vacation time some time ago.
Most starting companies, 2 weeks is the max vacation. Which, once you start spreading it out over the year isn’t any time at all.
I can see how you’d feel that way about Thoreau. He is that kind of writer who inspires and also incites anger, because like Whitman, he allowed himself to live a contradictory life, espousing one thing and doing another… and flopping around as he wrestled with his ideas. But always walking, man was he a walker… the people who really moved to the cabin in the woods inspired by Thoreau were Harlan Hubbard and his wife… they were legit.
https://www.sothismedias.com/home/dwelling-on-the-fringe-with-the-hubbards
I didn’t look so much into the trends of how long people had for time in the past. I do know we don’t really have much at all compared to Europeans unless you have been with a company or institution a really long time, and often then, the better vacation time plans were older ones, and people sometimes got grandfathered in… that’s just anecdotal.
Two weeks isn’t nothing. I work with a lady who started here in her late fifties, now in her early sixties. Likely won’t be able to retire for awhile and with kids spread around the country. So what to do with those two weeks needs to be carefully calculated.
I read “Harlan” in my head as “L. Ron” at first. And I was about to blame Scientology on Thoreau for a moment.
I guess if you are going to blame Scientology on someone, it could be the FBI. I think Hubbard was working on them as an investigator into cults when he got the idea of “now that I know a thing or two about cults, why not start one of my own”(… and if Xenu or any Scientology lawyers are eavesdropping, that’s not a direct quote… its just some shit in my head.)
I might have been wrong about him investigating cults FOR the government... but it is indisputable he was involved in Thelema (more to Thelema and Jack Parson's shame than Hubbard's IMO).
Sigh, back when our state police had ambition.
Exactly! The PSYOPS these days ain't got nothing on OG mind control assassins...
What would Xenu do?
Great exploration, Justin. I absolutely agree that we're going to have to adapt and adjust, and our summer vacations are going to have to be a part of that.
I agree about focusing more on locality and community. (Then again I think any way we can possibly return to these is going to be important going forward.) Other cultures in more tropical climates have as part of their routine a rest period during the hottest parts of the day. Heck, any retirement neighborhood in Florida would show you the same: no one risks a heart attack or a stroke by mowing their lawn past 10AM. I think it's time we started adapting similar practices in the rest of the country.
Yeah, I was going to write more about the practice of siesta, but didn’t get into it here, mostly for space. Locality, community, solitude -these things, I think, can guide us like the string leading through the labyrinth.
Thanks as ever for reading, James.
Good stuff! I’ve taken “stay-cations” for years. I always loved Thoreau’s takes on vacation. I didn’t know about the field trip origins and it’s connection or the edu-tainment lectures
Same! We like to do long weekend trips that are also within two to three hours away. We’ve visited Cleveland, Toledo, Louisville, on the urban side of things, and different state parks and camping / cabin sites on the more rustic side. I still like to travel further, but know it’s not something I will do every year.
Yeah, I didn’t know that either, until around the time I wrote that article and was also doing some reading on the Transcendentalists, so tied it in.
Thanks for reading Jon!