What is a vacation but a temporary hiatus from life. A rending from the daily grind to something foreign and new or even old and familiar in which you have a sense of connection and familiarity by means of purpose if nothing else. You are there to not be you. Not the you of the everyday responsibility. Not the you who is the parent or the worker or the child. This new, awakened, you wants to explore and to be in the moment of joy and, above all else, experience a power structure where you actually wield the power of the person who has things done for them. This is what a vacation looks like. I do this from time to time but less so. I am becoming a student of temporary relocation.
Jamaica Kincaid starts her powerful diatribe on tourism as such: “If you go to Antigua as a tourist, this is what you will see. If you come by aeroplane, you will land at the V. C. Bird International Airport. Vere Cornwall (V. C.) Bird is the Prime Minister of Antigua. You may be the sort of tourist who would wonder why a Prime Minister would want an airport named after him–why not a school, why not a hospital, why not some great public monument. You are a tourist and you have not yet seen . . .”
Yes, but I want to see and imbed and become used to the vibes of the city and the day to day of how people live and work. I will also work and do and be who I am when I am at home, for this is less a vacation but a place to temporary call home and to discover the beauty and strength of this new place with the fervor I should (or perhaps already have) given the place I usually call by that moniker.
Relocation in an entirely different beast and he wears the fabric of responsibility and walks the streets with the casualness of familiarity won by constantly walking those streets, as if reciting a mantra on what it means to be and to be a part and to be apart. I’m up for some relocation.
Some Thoughts:
- I go off like that at times. It is sort of why the blog exists. It is here to help me stay on the write grind but also to say what enters my mind.
- right now I feel like an explorer and I am excited about the new world within my reach.