Resurfacing



I'm finding it really very surreal that I'm back in Toronto.

Being completely away from big city life was an experience that didn't really hit me until the cab ride home yesterday afternoon. For a week, I was in the presence of fresh air, sunlight, blue skies, ocean views, the welcoming presence of the resort staff, and the great company of good friends and family.

Mostly, the difference in pace is what I find I have the hardest time adjusting to upon my return from any vacation. In this case, being able to stroll over the neighbouring resort on a whim, or explore the grounds, to spend hours on the beach — it's the type of life I lament having to give up. I find my mind keeps wandering to the '50s ideal of automation — weren't machines supposed to allow us more leisure time, not less?

A few years ago, I read In Praise of Slow, a book which discusses some of what we've lost on the way towards trying to make more time for ourselves, only to find that we've saddled ourselves with more work than ever in the race for increased productivity. It was chock-full of ideas I already subscribed to, so it's not as though it was a life-altering tome, or anything, but I found that it did help give voice to and expand upon some of my thoughts about the way we live our lives.

I subscribe to the idea that humans need to work on something to feel satisfied/happy, I just don't agree that doing the same thing, day-in, day-out, is the best way to achieve that. I know that I'm one of the lucky ones who is actually working in a field which results in pride-of-work for me, and that there are thousands, if not millions or billions of people who can't make that claim. I just don't think that this method of eking out ever-increasing productivity out of the world's employees is sustainable or even remotely what we set out to do when we were making the factories and/or machines which help us produce more.

Isn't there a better way to live?