Thus he would take a full year sabbatical every seven years<\/span>.<\/p>\n Now, for those of us in academia this is common sense: give a great mind a year off every so often and amazing things will come<\/span> (or, in a more cynical view, give someone a year under the iron fist of \u201cpublish or perish\u201d and he\/she will indeed publish). But for most people, the idea of taking a full year off every seven years might sound a bit crazy, as if the whole year would be devoted solely to what has otherwise been squeezed into weekends and that precious ten days (in the US, vs 20 or so in Europe) of vacation time each year.<\/p>\n This brings me to think of the topics of time off, creativity, mental freedom, and happiness.<\/p>\n Just last week,<\/span> a Spanish friend of mine<\/a> remarked in astonishment that we in the US only have 5 or 10 days of paid sick leave (if we\u2019re lucky)<\/span>. In Spain, and in fact much of Europe, if you\u2019re sick, your simply sick. You take time off and you lose no pay. If this means 3 weeks, okay. If it takes 6 months, for cancer for example, okay. There\u2019s no question. If you\u2019re sick, you focus on getting well \u2013 not juggling illness with making a living, often to disastrous results.<\/p>\n America\u2019s ideals seem so distant from that ideal (unfortunately). Instead we are pushed to earn and produce, even in academia.<\/p>\n But taking time off? Simply relaxing and devoting yourself to you<\/span>, to your<\/span> personal and\/or spiritual pursuits. This, as I mentioned above, has an odd ring to many in the US<\/span>. But one of the things I love most about Buddhist<\/a> Studies is that it gives us a mirror, a clear \u201cOther\u201d by which to reflect on ourselves. Sometimes what is odd to us is the norm somewhere else in the world, and sometimes so much so for the better. And having lived in Europe (the UK, at least), I challenge USA folks (because Canadians follow the Europeans) to justify our work ethic<\/span>.<\/p>\n Why so much? Could it be connected with our relatively low levels of self-reported life satisfaction? Could it be connected with our general poor health (despite the most advanced medical technology in the world)? Why is it that Europeans generally pay a bit higher taxes, off-set by free\/subsidized health-care, work less, and are happier? <\/span><\/p>\n As for my own meandering thoughts\u2026 Time off is good<\/span>. I look at a good friend, Margaret<\/a>, who is now done with her Ph.D., and revisions for publication, and articles, and presentations, and now\u2026 is relaxing. And it\u2019s wonderful. This freedom for creativity is put in contrast by another friend<\/a> (from my London days), this one in Pakistan, writing of the difficulties as a professor in violent times. And somewhere in the middle are Sjors<\/a> (creative genius in London), Kristen<\/a> (ditto in Vancouver), and Amod<\/a>, (philosopher outside of Boston, MA).<\/p>\n
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