ED’S LETTER

Ihave finally worked out (slow, I know) that the anticipation of a holiday is way more relaxing than the holiday itself. ‘This time next month,’ I think, ‘I’ll be lying in the sun somewhere (slathered from head to toe in factor 550 sunscreen, obv), reading a book.’ Or, ‘Next week this time I’ll be having a peaceful snooze under a tree after a long walk along the beach.’ Beautiful images and ideas that sustain me through the end-ofyear madness.

But in my experience, holidays are actually nothing like that: they’re basically a bunfight from dawn till… well, dawn: a fantastic chaos of friends and rellies and meals and shopping and cooking and talking and laughing and cleaning and music and dancing and cooking and shopping and new waves of people and old friends and more food… and so on and on. And I love those holidays and wouldn’t give them up for anything: they’re inspiring and funny and interesting and a whole lot of fun – all good things.

But what they’re emphatically not is relaxing or boring. There are no snoozy afternoons or quiet contemplative mornings, no staying in bed reading all day because you feel like it, and no staring up at the sky through the leaves of a tree for four hours or so. Basically, there is absolutely no room for boredom, and I’m beginning to feel a great need to be bored.

I always come up with my best thoughts when I’m not doing anything in particular. The freedom is in not having to focus, I think – your thoughts leap and land in unexpected places.

The truth is, we’re all distracted, all the time. When the whole world is full of tech that buzzes and lights up and constantly demands our attention, we’re always a little bit… elsewhere.

We stave off boredom because we’re so uncomfortable with it, but I think we profoundly need it.

Artist and author Jenny Odell coined the term ‘NOSMO’ (the Necessity of Sometimes Missing Out). Doing nothing is not easy, she says, but we need it to restore our balance, and maybe to challenge the idea that individuals – and societies – need to constantly improve and grow in order to be deemed successful.

What I’d really like in a holiday is a bit of both, but can they happen simultaneously? Maybe you’ve worked it out – if so, please share!

In the meantime, I wish all of you the most wonderful break, and the utter luxury of being bored to tears for at least a bit of it.

Happy holidays!

Love, Suzy