Once you’ve lived in a country whose citizens take
siestas, it is hard to justify working throughout the hottest hours of
the summer day.
It makes much more sense to work in the cool of the morning and evening,
and find a shady spot for a nap in the afternoon. Not only would we
maximize our own energy, but fuel would be saved if the air conditioner
was turned down while we were outside under a tree.
This savings of course assumes that we do not follow the Greek model
that was in effect between 1969-71 when I lived outside Athens.
Businesses shut down for several hours while owners and employees drove
home for lunch and a nap; there were four "rush hours" instead of two,
which probably explains why pollution was eating the statues on the
Acropolis. Now, years and many more vehicles later, it would be a
permanent rush hour as it would be in Boston, so I don’t know if they do
this anymore.
However, late evenings back then were delightful. After work people
would eat a leisurely meal and, the men at least, would socialize at an
outside table at a taverna til midnight. Many Americans, who worked all
day, were sometimes annoyed by the late hours for dinner, but as a
non-employed Navy wife I was able to "go native" and start taking naps,
either in our cool little house or beside the Navy base pool. Life was
very good in Greece.
I don’t remember siestas when I was an exchange student in Mexico –
classes were held in the afternoon, and I spent my free time memorizing
vocabulary words so I could converse with Mexican boys. But when my
partner Chip and I vacationed in a village in Baja California a few
years ago, the afternoon nap was expected, and we brought the habit
home. He likes to get up between 4-5 a.m. and work on the computer til
afternoon, then return refreshed in the evening.
It’s harder for me because I must interact with other people who are
working 9-5. But with the Legislature having left for a six-week siesta,
I am moving into summer mode myself. I work in the cooler hours of the
morning and evening, and retire to the hammock when the sun is high
above the cooling maple tree, taking my phone with me in case there’s a
business call.
Now that legislators who are hostile to the initiative petition process
have, after negative feedback from all sections of the political arena,
backed off on their bill to kill it, I wonder if someone could file a
petition to require summer siestas here in Massachusetts.
Would voters sign it? Probably not. The world seems to be moving in the
opposite direction, with all of us "on" all the time, reachable by our
cellphones, probably watched by satellites just in case we try to tell
anyone we were deep in a cave and couldn’t get a signal. Many of us
complain about this constant availability, but of course it couldn't
happen without our co-operation. Can we at least hope for more freedom
in the future to slow down and be aware of our lives as they go by?
After thirty years of commuting into Boston, being indoors during all
the summer daylight hours, commuting back at dusk, I now work at home
where I can step outside during the summer days and visit my flowers.
This has nothing to do with aging and retirement, since I’m a long ways
from the latter; my new freedom is due to my phones and computer which
allow me to telecommute,
Maybe all we will need eventually is an initiative petition requiring
that computers and phones be turned off from noon to 2 p.m., so we can
each go somewhere quiet for an American siesta.
Barbara Anderson is executive director of Citizens for Limited Taxation. Her syndicated columns appear weekly in the Salem
News, Newburyport Times, Gloucester Times, (Lawrence) Eagle-Tribune, and Lowell Sun; bi-weekly in the Tinytown Gazette; and occasionally in the Providence
Journal and other newspapers.