Vacations

    The cerulean blue and the emerald green of the Florida Keys engulfed my vision on the long, seven-mile bridge over the lagoons.  Such a sight is something everyone should see.  The snorkeling is out of this world, and the Key lime pie is to die for.  This is only a taste of one of my favorite vacations.  It was a true vacation, a perfect example of the word, yet the word 'vacation' does not have the same meaning for everyone. 
    To the child, a vacation means the summer off from school.  Summer is described as those "sweet childish days, that were as long as twenty days are now".(Wm.Wordsworth)  To the blue-collar worker, it is a week or two, paid if you're lucky, of reprieve from a job.  To the traveling salesman, a vacation is to finally be home.  For most people, a vacation is a time of rest, or time of play; a time to stay home for a change, or a time to fly the coop.  Whatever it means, it is a universal looking forward to, an ideal, and an escape from the norm.
    As a child, I always looked forward to the second week in June.  School ended with the last chapter of our books and ushered in the first chapter of summer.  My family always went on a two-week trip to a cabin on a lake.  We spent the time fishing or hiking.  Sometimes it was a camper or trailer that we hauled to a national park.  This was the best time of the summer---away from home.  The campfires with sticky marshmallows, the hot chocolate, the stories and laughter around the fire were treasures in my memory bank.  Dad taught us how to fish.  Those cold mornings in a boat on the lake were adventures.  Family was everything, and we spent that time together.
    The worker's vacation time is sweet to his soul. After working at the same job, seeing the same people, or driving the same highway, the two-week vacation is a great escape.  Hopefully, he has made plans, saved money, and has gotten prepared to enjoy this time off.  It will be what gets him through the year to the next vacation.  A trip to an island, a cruise, or a camping trip to another state can sure soften his hard, salty world.
    That traveling salesman or businessperson looks forward to actually being home.  This is the ideal vacation spot for him.  Being away has made him a stranger to the comforts of home.  The familiar doorpost is not familiar.  The airline pilot who spends most of his nights in a hotel bed just wants to slide full-length between his own sheets.  The taste of food on the go, in a restaurant, or worse---airline food, sticks in his throat.  It's home cooking that he longs for.  Those two weeks paid vacation will be his rest on the home front.
    The mom who stays home most of her days, waiting on children and husband, longs for foreign shores.  A house on the beach would be nice, or a round-trip ticket to England would suffice---ala childless.  She longs to be alone with her husband and take in the sights of London, see Phantom of the Opera, eat real fish 'n chips, and take tea at Covent Gardens.  That would be a real vacation.  She would be, as the English say, "on holiday".  She must get away from the chores, the domicile, the kids, and do a once-in-a-lifetime trip.  This mom would be refueled, refreshed, and rekindled to take on anything after a relaxing trip abroad.
    Then there is the man who must 'do' something on his time off, so he plans a working vacation.  He is not able to relax or have personal fun, or gasp! do nothing while sitting in a beach chair sipping lemonade.  He must go and do, be it building a house for a poor family in Mexico, or helping a friend in Montana with wheat harvest, or it could mean helping a family member move to another state.  These are not restful, relaxing vacations.  They are hard work.  In fact, he works harder than normal because he has a time deadline.  He must return home, for his 'rest' is getting back to his normal job.  This sounds very tiring and counterproductive.  When does this person truely vacation?
    A vacation should be just what it is defined as in the Webster's Dictionary---"A period of rest or freedom from regular work, study, etc."  It comes from the root word, vacate---"to leave, get away, cause to become vacant".  Give me some time and a little money, and I will be glad to vacate and demonstrate freedom from my work, my study, and everything else.
    I look forward to my next 'real' vacation---away from it all.  The word is pregnant with possibilities and invokes a sense of great expectation.