Elizabeth: The Power of Summer

As we celebrate a week of 'no politics' on The Recovering Politician, let's share just what such a vacation means to us. For me, it means, switching off from the news about politicians and what they are or are not achieving. It means turning off the tv, the radio, the news websites, the computers and all the other 'connected' devices. It means walking right past the tv as the stock market plunges and talking heads gyrate on the screen. It means not allowing ourselves, for one week, to worry about retirement or our child's education. As ghastly as it sounds, it means putting despair about starving children on 'pause' for just a week and letting others, like Bono and Anderson Cooper, do the worrying. 

Taking a vacation means temporarily putting aside obligations to 'keep up with the news', do community work, check on extended family members, meet responsibilities and finish 'chores' around the house. It means just kicking back with spouses and children to do a puzzle, play cards, build with blocks, paint with watercolors, visit a museum, hike a trail, have a beer in the afternoon, swim, take a nap, and to marvel at this vast country by visiting somewhere new.

And to politicians, I’d say this…”take a break!” be normal people, spend time with your family, read a novel, vegetate. For one week, don’t make a political calculation. the latter might be the single hardest thing to do.

And please, when the week is over and you are recharged, please come back and think differently. Cast your gaze away from the economy, towards the environment…Fresh air and fresh water hold the key to life itself and in restoring both, we just may create enough economic activity to put the economy right again. It may even enable us to relieve the very worst suffering in this world, that of a starving child.