What I did in the holidays

I have been on holiday, unfortunately not quite as long as the silence on this blog but long enough for some reflections.

Firstly the very idea of holidays is very middle class, I was watching an episode of Downton Abbey (which I would recommend to those yet to discover it) and at one point a new character to the house is speaking of doing an activity at the weekend, at which point the Dowager Duchess asks “what is a weekend” delivered in a priceless put down tone.

So other than it being the name commonly given to Saturday and Sunday it does occur that a weekend is only relevant to those who have a working week followed by a period of “leisure” or at least not paid employment. Of course the rich and or idle barely notice the passing days, a phenomenon I observed on holiday when I was barely able to tell you which day of the week it was. At the other end of the spectrum are those who work all the time or 6 days a week when the idea of a leisure period every five days is laughable. Funnily enough self employed shopkeepers or hospitality providers fall into this category these days. So really only the privileged 9-5ers among us now enjoy a weekend.

So it is with holidays, some folk never seem to get holidays and some seem permanently on some sort of holiday. (I do realise that this may seem to include those seeking work but having experienced this I know it is not a holiday.) So I decided that being able to describe myself as having returned from holiday is in some ways privilege. It shows I have some work to do but at a sufficient level that allows me holidays. As I say very middle class.

The other thought that struck me was the parts of the holiday that I enjoyed the most, of course the ability to indulge in idle time is great but the catching up with friends and family who you don’t see through the year was also a joy. Mostly this was combined with food and or drink of some sort or another, either a picnic at pleasant spot or an evening BBQ, or just a cup of coffee or glass of wine.

Which reminded me of Epicurus, one of those long dead but not forgotten Greek philosophers, who’s name these days, in the form of Epicurean, has been appropriated as a by word for the enjoyment of food in particular but normally fairly flash food, certainly not a sausage off a BBQ served with tomato sauce and bread.

But while Epicurus promoted hedonism his actual view on what that constituted was good bread and olives and some wine shared with friends. To him this was the height of pleasure, good but simple food shared with friends.

Like a lot of holiday spots ours is simple and less grand than my usual life but the simplicity does not detract from enjoyment. So just like Epicurus simple food shared with friends brought great pleasure. Of course the silly thing is that my usual life could be simpler if I chose. The logical outcome of working 5 days a week is not a more complex life and I know from experience that fancy food at fancy restaurants does nothing to enhance your life really.

So my new year’s resolution is to choose simple but important stuff. Good bread, a little olive oil perhaps and a glass of reasonably priced quality wine shared with good friends as often as I can and take a moment now and again to be grateful that I go on holiday but also that I have the option to work.