Today is when Quebec falls on vacation. Never is the use of the verb to fall so appropriate. We don’t go on vacation. We don’t go up on vacation. We don’t gush on vacation. We fall. We crash. We are collapsing. We are frightened.
As Alcaraz fell on the grass of Wimbledon, last Sunday, after five interminable sets against Djokovic. Empty. Like a marathon runner falls to the ground after crossing the finish line and sweating for 42 kilometres. Slammed. We can’t take it anymore. We are not able! We have come to the end of our efforts. At the end of our strength. Work got us. The body relaxes. The mind lets go. The set is knocked. On behalf of ten or fifteen days.
Finally holidays !
The problem is that we don’t stay lying down very long. Time to catch your breath, you get up, asking: “What are we doing? The human is an exhausted hyperactive.
It’s not nature that abhors a vacuum, it’s us. Yet the word is clear: vacation. As in vacant. Unoccupied. Free. Abandoned. Why do we fill our holidays? Why do we cram them with activity?
Pascal, the thinker, said it so well: “All the misfortune of men comes from a single thing, which is not knowing how to remain at rest, in a room. »
It’s strong as stated. All unhappiness, not just a few unhappiness, the whole Pandora’s box, you thing, is caused by our inability to sit still in our room. We are intolerant of idleness.
Some will say that they know people who don’t kill themselves at work. Whose idleness gene seems quite developed. TRUE. Anyone who has waited hours for service in a government office or in a store knows this. But just because these people aren’t doing what they’re supposed to do doesn’t mean they aren’t doing anything. On the contrary. It’s because these people are doing something else that they’re not doing what they’re supposed to be doing.
Anyway, we’re not here to talk about the job, we’re here to talk about the holidays. Even the laziest worker struggles on his leave.
The proof: who among you, dear readers, will spend the next two weeks, resting, in a room? None. You all have plans. Visits, receptions, trips, planned sports. A busy schedule.
According to Pascal, this constant need for entertainment is our way of fleeing the anguish of death. Rest, however partial, confronts us with eternal rest. That’s why we get so tired, even on vacation. So as not to reflect on the basis of existence.
Rather than asking: to be or not to be? We prefer to ask ourselves: barbecue or restaurant? Netflix or cinema? Golf or tennis? Climbing or water slides? Above ground or inground pool? Wear 30 or 60? There Hand or Maine? Stockings in sandals or sandals no stockings?
It occupies the mind. And the rest, too.
Vacations change the place.
Isn’t that the human condition: spend your time changing evil places?
More positive minds, closer to Youppi! that of Pascal, would say that by dint of changing the evil place, we end up finding the place where we are good.
And it is often during her holidays that we find her.
Sitting outside on a chair or on a rock, stretched out in the grass or on the sand, looking at the sea, the lake, the river, the mountains or the stars. Just thinking how beautiful it is.
This moment, this Pascal moment, when everything seems to be on hold, including us, recharges our batteries for fifty weeks.
That’s what I wish for you, for the two who are coming.
Good holidays !