“When you feel life coming down on you like a heavy weight….

When you feel this crazy society adding to the strain…

Take a stroll to the nearest waters..

And remember your place…

Many moons have risen and fallen long long before you came.”

This is from a song I love called “Follow the Sun” by Xavier Rudd. I think of it anytime I’m near a beautiful body of water.

I have just returned from a fabulous vacation in Italy that ended with a spectacular boat ride along the Italian Riviera. Italy has got to be one of the most popular European destinations for American tourists as I’m sure I heard more English than Italian walking those historic cradle-of-the-renaissance streets. Understandable -it is an incredible country to visit. The beauty and history are humbling. Over and over my family and I would be looking at a Tuscan landscape or a historic city, or the actual marble mountains of Carrara (Yes. Where all the marble comes from !) and simply say “this just doesn’t seem like it’s actually real.”  Everywhere we went there were layers upon layers of history. Renaissance palaces built next to Medieval fortresses on top of ancient Roman ruins. All coexisting nicely, and standing in place as centuries of war, flood, feast, famine, political sniping and oh yea, the black death (talk about a pandemic!) passed by.

When you go on vacation in a foreign country, you tend to get a little unplugged. Data too expensive, WiFi unreliable. Wonderful distractions like coliseums and gelato. Time zone indifference to what’s happening back home. To me this is a tremendous gift, not just because it allows you to tune out the troubles of the world for a while, but because it also puts them in perspective.

I was gone for a week, and it wasn’t a total news blackout for me – I got the headlines. Upon my return home, the stressful news of the world hadn’t changed much. Climate change was still making the weather scary. Political parties still sniping at each other and starting culture wars. Bad guys around the world are still being greedy and cruel to the less fortunate. People still frightened by things that they don’t understand about each other. It was not made better or worse by my lack of consuming the details.  

I’m trying to hold on to this perspective as I re-enter life.

Some people come back from European vacations critical of our own country. I get that – all that history and great food, fashion and stellar public transportation systems. We can’t always compete. But if you know me, you know I’m a patriotic, flag-loving snowflake. Maybe it’s my history degree. Maybe it’s the life of an army brat, raised around people in fatigues, parades and 21 gun salutes, followed by formative years in the democratic stronghold of New York City. I love America for the same reasons people from both the struggling and successful countries of the world are drawn to us. Our complicated, imperfect, frequently challenged system kinda sorta works, despite what the 24-hour news cycle is always telling us. This was reinforced for me by two op-eds I read recently in the New York Times

The first was about research done on the pandemic and how polarizing it was or wasn’t. They looked at data about stay-at-home orders, mask mandates, and school closures state by state. Turns out that despite all the apparent strife over these issues, blue states and red states did pretty much the same things and emerged at about the same time in the same ways. It’s a great read with visuals and it may surprise you which color states did what.

The second was an opinion piece about the lawsuits around many of the recent laws around LGBTQ2+ issues including gender-affirming care. Many are being struck down as unconstitutional. Whatever your opinion about these issues, laws that enshrine government overreach in one area can bite us hard when they are applied to other areas. Our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of whatever form of happiness we desire is the American promise – it’s what freedom means. 

On that last beautiful day boat ride, I was chatting with our captain, Andrea, who spends his days in this beautiful place with all this history. I was telling him how it amazes us because nothing in our country is more than 300 or 400 years old, and that I doubt that much of what’s here wouldn’t hold up quite like the houses built into rock in Cinque Terre. His response, in somewhat broken English was. “Yes, but. Our country, uh, our government, uh. Politics. Not good.”  He was envious of our messy little two-hundred-year-old system.

Right about now you’re going “Whoa, Anne, what the hell with all this philosophical political stuff?  Where’s the pithy organizing/productivity/life coach message I’ve come to expect?”  I’d never leave you hanging like that my friends.

Without further ado, here are your takeaways in bullet point form. Because you’ve done enough reading for now.

• Go on vacation

• Talk to your captain

• Get away from the constant news drip

• Love your country warts and all

• Quiet your mind and look for the good

• Read newspapers

• Remember nothing is ever all good or all bad. It is what it is, which is usually a little of both, mixed with some stuff that’s meh.

And finally:

Take a stroll to the nearest waters and remember your place… Many moons have risen and fallen long long before you came.

**Bonus tip. Use a travel agent – they’re mostly free and much smarter than you! And if you’re family hates what’s planned, it won’t be your fault

What I’m Consuming

Books

I just finished Lucy By the Sea, a pandemic story that really brought to life the way things felt in 2020, and the permanent change it cause in us all.

About to start The Spectacular by my dear friend Fiona Davis whose historical novels set in New York City landmarks never fail to grab you on page one and keep you guessing. Always a great summer read!

Podcasts

Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford. “…stories of awful human error, tragic catastrophies and hilarious fiascos. Recent favorites talked about the demise of ‘playful workspaces’ from the 90s, and about how the Segway was expected to revolutionize life as we know it. Fascinating 30-ish minute episodes.

TV

I’ve been on a “finishing tour”. So many shows I started during the pandemic but fell off watching started having their series finales recently, so I decided to pick them back up and see them through so no one could spoil them for me. First up The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel - a show I loved when it started but got bored and felt it got silly in season 4. Glad I returned - it ended in a most satisfying fashion with back to back loose end tying episodes. Ted Lasso-check! Succession - almost there. But it’s largely already been spoilered, so not in such a rush.

Here’s some more pics of from my awesome vacation…