[© From "The Defective Watch", an experiment in time travel]
We´re off to Europe next week and will be back on June 15. During this time only irregular updates -- if any.
In the meantime read the brandnew June 2004 issue of The Digital Journalist (Editor writes: "I'm beginning to worry that our readers think journalism is the same as getting shot at") with the new feature "E-Bits" and/or "On vacation" by n i e k h o c k x . n u | shutterclog:
In the old and rather primitive days, when the first ex-European thiefs, thugs and other outlaws set foot on America's shores to efficiently kill off most of the native population and start something we now have come to know, love and/or hate as The United States of America, the concept of "vacation", - a reasonable amount of personal quality time off from work each year -, simply didn't exist. Nobody had "vacation" in those days. Not in old Europe and not in the rest of the world.
Unfortunately for that same old Europe and the rest of the world the concept of "vacation" still doesn't exist in the US two or three hundred years later. It's like time stood still in that country.
For Europeans today trying to talk with Americans about "a relaxing vacation" is like having a conversation with a brick wall. US citizens just don't have the faintest idea, what the rest of the civilized world is talking about. Work is always the highest good. And everything else, even love, friendship, relations, is less important and preferably expressed in billable hours, bonds or stock options.
To understand Americans (or at least attempt to) it's important to keep in mind that vacation is work for them. Hard work. That's why they think they can "do" Europe in a week. If it's Tuesday this must be Belgium, even if it's not.
That's why they voluntarily stay in touch with the office 24/7, even during those few vacation days they may have (if they are lucky), but not really want.
That's why a whole bunch of Americans sigh they need "a vacation to recover from their vacation", even though they have no clue whatsoever what a real true vacation can be like and what makes it worthwhile .
And that's why, in this day and age, they are still able to post complete and utter misconceptions like this .
You really can't blame them for not wanting something they never learned to experience the right way, let alone appreciate in the first place.
Historically speaking "vacation" is a totally alien concept for most Americans (But strangely enough not for their "democratically elected" president, who's notorious for being on vacation most of the time). A nonentity. A vacuum of unawareness, from sea to shining sea, in a land where time stood still.
Of course two or three hundred years later they are also still allowed to possess hand guns and other dangerous fire arms in the Homeland of Security... ;-)
