It's not so much the time away as the time unplugged I am looking forward to. In our hyper-connected world the severing of connectedness for short periods of time are important. Silly is the soul who does not take advantage of those opportunities when they can.
The days in the run up to time off are extra busy. To be truly away for 16 consecutive week days requires a bit of preparation. Lots of loose ends to tie up (or at least secure sufficiently to hold for a couple of weeks), greater meeting density (I refer only to quantity, not quality) this week, some longer days.
Then, late this afternoon, I will engage my email account's away message to auto respond to all incoming email, and then disable my work email account on my iPhone and iPad so they are not even tempted to download work-related messages.
There is a work "me" and a not-work "me." They aren't worlds apart from each other, but they do require the application of different skills and both have slightly different natural stances. What requires effort in one often doesn't in have other, and vice-versa. I intend to shed the work "me" and reacquaint myself more fully with the not-work "me." If I am successful I shall become, temporarily, a stranger to that other workish me.
It isn’t me, he’d say,
stepping out of a landscape
that offered, he’d thought, the backdrop
to a plausible existence
until he entered it; it’s just not me,
he’d murmur, walking away.
It’s not quite me, he’d explain,
apologetic but firm,
leaving some job they’d found him.
They found him others: he’d go,
smiling his smile, putting
his best foot forward, till again
he’d find himself reluctantly concluding
that this, too, wasn’t him.
- James Lasdun, from It Isn't Me
Today's playlist:
- Yim Yames: Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp ( Let It Roll)
- Engelbert Humperdinck: The Last Waltz
- Augustana: I'll Stay
- Charlie Haden: Nocturn
- The Eagles: Desperado
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