I have always thought that going on holiday didn't make much sense - I am perfectly capable of relaxing at home. Sure, I like a break from the normal work routine as much as anyone else, but I don't need to do it somewhere else. But just now I had a thought: what if this obsession with a change of scenery were just the last vestiges of an ingrained, ancestral need to move around, the way we did before we invented agriculture? What if the nomadic lifestyle had somehow left a genetic imprint, making it impossible for us to sit still for very long? And if so, am I different because I was born that way, or because I have moved around so much in my life?
Just another thought. Not one that I actually entertain seriously (it is on par with the classical thinking error that giraffes have long necks because they stretch it to reach food), but a funny one anyway.
Just another thought. Not one that I actually entertain seriously (it is on par with the classical thinking error that giraffes have long necks because they stretch it to reach food), but a funny one anyway.
A pretty straightforward, almost cliché, explanation is that it might have to do with being afraid of facing one's own life and, ultimately, death. While you work you don't have time to think about life's great existential question or at least most people bury such thoughts underneath the daily routine. Once you take a real break, which includes not mowing the lawn, not repairing the shed, etc., thoughts about what the hell you are doing, why the hell you are trying to earn all that money, and similar, invariably come up. Most people, I believe, avoid looking for answers by escaping to remote places where their time and efforts are entirely consumed by having to say hello and trying to read roadsigns in funny languages. This way, they also manage to justify their daily toil by the expenses such costly travelling activities involve.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure this is true for some people, but I think it is even more common to avoid thinking "dark existentialist thoughts" by making long hours at the office, and not going on holiday at all ...
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