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.