It’s not that the images of Mitt and his family on their jet skis and their boats bother me too much (especially since I can’t afford a vacation since I’m saving for one little apartment), but what really bothers me is what his vacation and his vacation homes say about him as a potential president. As his wife so callously stated regarding vacationing, they have their “own places for that.” This makes me realize how ill-prepared he is for that 3 am phone call.
No Intellectual Curiosity. If he only vacations in the places he owns, that means that he has no desire to learn about the world and the way people live in different places, and even to view how different the world looks in different places. I don’t know about you, but there’s a big difference between taking a vacation in your own country than in a place where you don’t speak the language, don’t know the customs, don’t know the people. Sure, at his income level he would just go from rented estate to rented estate or Four Seasons suite to Four Seasons suite, but there’s still the different sights and smells and foods and activities (do they museum?) and people to interact with. Why should they be so proud of only being at their own places?
A few years ago I went to India on a business trip. That was an experience that changed me. Once you see people living in a traffic island, your conception of poverty and inequality and suffering forever changes.
Wandering the streets of an unknown city with a useless map surely helps uncover things about yourself and your world that you can’t get any other way.
Can you have an epiphany about life and purpose, except that it’s very, very good, when you look out at the ocean from your own deck surrounded by your family?
No Problem Solving Needed. What could be the worse thing that could happen on a staycation? A burst pipe, a broken limb, a bad lobster? And even if that happens, you know who to call and where to go for help. But if you are away from home (any of your homes), there’s a whole lot of problem-solving that needs to be figured out—even when there are no problems.
Just think about it. You have to decide where you want to go and where you can afford to go; and once that’s done, if you’re not just staying in one place, every single day you need to figure out the route, where to eat, where to sleep and what to do. My parents always took what I called Seeing America Trips in our Dodge; I cannot imagine the juggling my parents had to do every single day to stay in their budget and to deal with my brother and me who always wanted a motel with a pool. It didn’t occur to me that they might have been trying to conserve the money as opposed to purposely making me suffer.
Has the man ever had to handle the unknown when he is in the unknown? Has he had to figure something out just by reaching in and finding his own intellect and strength and common-sense?