| "I never go on vacation," said a Manhattan real estate | | | | the occasion to replace you with somebody who has |
| agent. "And when I do, I have my computer, my Palm, | | | | shown promise of never needing something as |
| my e-mail and my cell phone with me at all times." | | | | irresponsible as a vacation, at least, not one that goes |
| It seems that our tech toys have become the adult | | | | on and on for that long ago and faraway interlude of |
| equivalent of an umbilical cord. So how can we live | | | | two weeks. |
| without them? | | | | What's an exhausted and tense person to do? Here's |
| And what about now, when, as a good citizen, who | | | | our humble but functional answer. Most years we take |
| also doesn't want to get arrested, you at least have to | | | | long weekends, with only an occasional year in which |
| endure your plane trip without their nourishment and | | | | we indulge in a flagrant week or two away from our |
| comfort? Let's do a checklist of tech tonics that can | | | | day-to-day entanglements. We find the possibility of |
| cause us to experience separation anxiety. | | | | frequent breaks inviting, and we don't get taken out of |
| Your laptop. No more making the flight a window to | | | | our lives the way the extended vacations of yore |
| catch up with your work or idle the time away with a | | | | used to separate us from our usual doings. We also |
| video game. Even if you're reunited with the high-tech | | | | find that most of the world is within reach during these |
| marvel after the flight, what if you're on a tropical | | | | three-day to five-day intervals. |
| island, marooned on the coconut garden without a | | | | Of course, if you're thinking of heading to Australia or |
| high-speed Internet connection? | | | | the Far East, you may be doing little more than making |
| Your cell phone. No more last minute chats before | | | | a U-turn, so better reserve those destinations for the |
| takeoff or immediate reconnection on landing. How | | | | rare times when you dare a week or - dare we even |
| bereft can life get? | | | | mention the words? - two or even three weeks? |
| Your Palm or Blackberry. Can't take either of those on | | | | Then again, you can always decide to move to a |
| board either, and, as you know, out of phone numbers | | | | vacation destination forever, especially when you |
| and email addresses, out of business, worse yet, cut | | | | compare the length of the idylls in other parts of what |
| off from your entire social life, at least, for the | | | | we loosely refer to as the civilized world. |
| seemingly eternal length of the flight. | | | | According to the Organization for Economic |
| Your MP3 player. No, no, anything but that! How will | | | | Cooperation and Development, as of 2004, in the US |
| your soul survive the deafening silence? | | | | full-time employees have 3.9 holiday and vacation |
| And the reluctance to separate from our tech tools | | | | weeks off a year, while in the UK they have 6.6 |
| isn't the only reason many Americans are reluctant to | | | | weeks, in France 7, and in Italy 7.9. |
| take the vacations they once flew out of their office | | | | But do you really want to part with the good, young |
| chairs for. Most Americans also fret, in these days | | | | USA for an extended or everlasting break? For most |
| when what used to be called workaholic hours now | | | | of us the thought remains an occasion for separation |
| seem more like half days, that the employer will use | | | | anxiety that we simply can't endure. |