Vacations

Sacking of Rome

At this time of year when people are talking about and planning their vacations, I find myself remembering a theory about the Fall of the Roman Empire, that I came across when I was in college.

There are easily hundreds of theories as to why the Roman Empire collapsed with little or no agreement on even when exactly it happened.

Most prevalent is the theory that the reign collapsed because of the ferocity of the Goths and Visigoths, but equally as compelling is a theory that the Caesars, proclaiming themselves as deity, were struck down with hubris, or that the Romans became victims of hiring mercenaries to be their army.

The one I remember and like is that they had too many days’ vacation.

The article I read theorized that when days off work exceeded days spent working, it is only a matter of time before an empire collapses.

The Roman Circus certainly qualifies, much as do the Hunger Game series.

Roughin It

Our family is finalizing plans for the nine of us to return to Door County for our annual vacation.  We have had to make plans around Sean’s family vacations, which include: a trip to Orlando next week with Cecelia’s extended family to a time-share her father owns; a trip for her girls to Singapore to visit their natural father, a side trip from Door County to see the World Champion Cubs, and Tim’s summer vacation, which returns him to work in August.

Sean and Cecelia also were able to use our play tickets in New York when my health took a south turn and caused us to cancel the GNYDM, the five of us took a day in San Francisco to celebrate the Battle of Midway and Sean and Cecelia’s anniversary.

If summer vacation were extended, Sean might come close to that 50-50 work split.

I don’t begrudge them their trip plans.  They are fortunate to be able to have the time off work. When I was in the Navy, we got 30 days a year, but no one took all of them.  At 60 days, further accumulated days dropped off, so I had 60 days on the books when I retired.  My days at WellPoint were much the same, although when I started with them Sick Days were separate from Personal Days.  I remember when I retired the doorbell rang and I had a check for $15,000 for unused personal days.  A VERY pleasant surprise!

As a teacher in the Diocese, Tim has a use it or lose it policy on his personal days.  That benefits me because he uses many of his days restoring his mental health by golfing.

I heard recently that Middle Class is now defined as having time and money sufficient to take a vacation.  Upper Class was defined as having the means to buy a boat.  While we never owned a boat, we were able to ski as a family in the winter and SCUBA as a family in the summer for several years.  The memories for all of us have filled a lifetime.

When I wrote my book Harnessing a Heritage part of the motivation and all of the format was to instill in my grandsons a sense of their own heritage.  That has been a grand success, as they look forward to their vacations now with anticipation of familiar places and things to do.

Hopefully when and if they have their own families the tradition will continue.

In my next Post, I will recall somethings about dance that I remember and why I remember them.  I hope you can join me now that I am writing again.

Guillermo del Toro

Mary and I belong to several Museums.  Some local, like the Orange County Museum of Art and Bowers.  Others far distant, like the Haggerty Museum on the Marquette campus. Several in Los Angeles, most, purchased because of a certain exhibit that we wanted to see or that we wanted our grandchildren to see.  That explains LACMA with Van Gogh and the Natural History Museum with the Space shuttle.  The Museum of Latin American Art also falls into that category.

And there are membership perks.

In September of last year, we received notice of a Member’s Only preview of an exhibit soon to open at the Los Angeles County of Museum Art (LACMA). The promotional images were exceptional.  It turns out that they were lifted from several of the films del Toro has directed.

While this might be expected to make the show a disappointment, the fact is anything but.

It turns out that Mr. del Toro is a bit of an eccentric, even by LA standards.  He lives in the Hollywood hills in a seventeen-room house with each room a virtual museum in its own right.  He collects and displays sketches, objects d’art; even costumes and set pieces from his many, unusual films.

Since he was a child in Mexico, he has been fascinated by horror, terror, and fantasy.  This might seem strange for a child raised in a very Catholic upbringing, but he may have been affected by the violence in his home state of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico.  He is now a self-proclaimed involuntary exile from his native country.

My favorite film he produced is Pan’s Labyrinth but he is also singularly responsible for the Hellboy series and is co-credited for The Hobbit series, although he left the project when MGM had multiple delays from financing problems.

One of the things that made the display unique and memorable was the staging.  There were several stations, each with its own identity: One with costumes from his films, another with film clips of unique sets from his films, a third with clips from the actors in his films, several with artifacts from his home, including early figures of Frankenstein’s Monster.

His obvious love for his country and his Mexican heritage were probably responsible for the collection displayed.  Los Angeles is, after all an essentially Spanish speaking culture.

I was reminded, as we went through the collection, that Museums are changing, as are libraries from traditional collections to collections focused on more timely subjects.  Even libraries now have Curators, who conceive and collect for more interesting events.

I am dedicated to returning to writing my Posts on a more regular basis.  Join me soon for a look at vacations and what they might mean.