Two Sides, Two Choices
|There are two types of vacations: those that leave you rejuvenated and those that leave you exhausted. I will never understand why people choose to take vacations so crammed with activities, destinations, sites, shopping, shows and gluttony you come back to your busy life sapped and sluggish, needing, ironically, another break.
Actually, I do know why people do it. So they can say, “Oh, the Great Wall? Yes, I’ve seen it. Very large…you can see it from space!” Or “Sure, Costa Rica was nice, but there’s nothing like Barbados.” To brag, see? Because where is the glamor of telling your friends you went to the mountains and spent some time reassessing your life, truly letting go, and re-filling your reserve tank? Right. You have to leave that little showboating vessel vacant, put it on the shelf and forget about it. You must. But then you won’t even have any good photos to post of Flickr and Facebook.
So, you see, we fall into the trap of taking trips of the former sort, and get gray hair and heart disease instead.
Leave renewed, or leave exhausted. It is up to you.
All relationships have elements of polarizing irony. Think on this litmus test for proving the value of personal interactions:
“You have spent some time with this person, either you have a drink or go for dinner or you go to a ball game. It doesn’t matter very much but at the end of that time you observe whether you are more energised or less energised. Whether you are tired or whether you are exhilarated. If you are more tired then you have been poisoned. If you have more energy you have been nourished. The test is almost infallible and I suggest that you use it for the rest of your life.”
-Milton Glaser
So, you can put wrinkles on your face by pleasing every customer, or you can find the world’s best customers that leave you fulfilled.
You can cringe and work for someone or something you don’t like or you can choose not to.
You can guard to the death your secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices or you can share it openly with the world.
You can give a man a fish, or you can teach him how.
You can take 1,000 photos of 100 places, or you can see, experience and contemplate one place, and take no photos.
It is up to you.
