Ten days ago Kevin and I were in Duluth, MN. Since then we’ve been to more than one bookstore in more than one small town across Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. We stayed three days in Petoskey, just south of the Mackinac Bridge which connects the UP with the mainland. And then we drove down the western side of the state and headed home to Benton Harbor.
As a rule, when I travel I bring work; but this time I didn’t. Instead, I left not only the stationary aspects of my life (piano, ironing, paying bills) but also the creative ones (blogging, working on my newsletter, managing a new publishing company) behind. It was a new experience.
I found I had time just to talk and read and drink coffee with my son. Those are all things he loves to do and does well. He’s also a soccer aficionado; and since some sort of Soccer World Cup was on television, we watched a lot of that together too.
As a professor, Kevin glories in summertime when he doesn’t have to prepare for classes, keep regular office hours, or grade papers. He is free of students, faculty, and administration; and if he thinks about them – and I bet he does – it’s in a peripheral way. So I couldn’t have traveled with a better role model.
I don’t know where the ten days went, but when Kevin left for Chicago this afternoon, I sat down to work with renewed interest. Maybe that’s another benefit to a real vacation.
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