As if one’s natural sloth is not enough, the absolute sloth of "vacation" beckons, although it just feels like slightly shifting gear from one vacation mode (very enjoyable work) to another mode (very enjoyable something else).
I will be off until 5 August, travelling in the land of the Lapland, the Midnight Sun and the Northern Lights, and then onto a university town that has housed a place of great learning since 1096 AD.
So, might you welcome not hearing from me or hearing from me less often? Might you consider it rude or tardy if I don’t respond in time?
It is fashionable to tout "work-life balance" as something that requires intentional separation of the compartments, or to place boundaries on work hours, or separation of weekdays from weekends, or a complete shut-down from work over holidays or during "vacation”.
While I strongly enjoy leisure daily, as a part of daily living, and think I comfortably find that “work-life balance” in day-to-day life almost seamlessly, I for one reject any and every compartmentalization – which I believe violates the fundamental properties of any complex dynamic adaptive system – which is what defines the world and the universe we live in.
I see life as multiple, almost infinite continuous variables, intersecting one another, and among them matters like work-family, work-leisure, work-vacation.
So, I like to view all these as continuums, not as separate categories, and exercise my adaptive ability to shift gear from speed to slow in one dimension, while accelerating in another, but never stopping in any dimension altogether.
A bit like wake-sleep cycles (where we don’t die when we sleep) or the systole-diastole cycle (where the heart does not go into asystole, and we don’t want it to) or any of numerous examples from complex systems.
What all this means is that even while I am on vacation you will hear from me, but less often and my response may be much slower than when I am at work. That said, just like a sleeping animal preserves its adrenaline rush when required, should something emergent and urgent arise, I will find the way to kick into action from the slumbers of my slothful state – but sloth I will enjoy to the fullest.
Wish you dynamism and peace always!
Venkat
