The Importance of Earnest Service

Berkshires Arts Festival, Mass.

I love going to craft fairs–a brisk round of all the booths, the anticipation of seeing an innovative piece of jewelry, sculpture, pottery, fine art, textile, tee-shirt, jacket or winter coat topped by a stop at hot dog, lemonade or fruit smoothie stand. It can’t be beat.

I remember some of the crafts people I’ve met as others remember meeting sports or movie stars, musicians or politicians. Some of my most whimsical, cheeriest ceramic serving bowls were crafted by one of the grouchiest, surliest women I’ve ever seen. She was an equal opportunity screamer–at her husband, mother and customers alike. Last time I saw her, some eight to 10 years ago, she was pregnant. I felt sorry for the child. It was shop at your peril in her booth, but the bowls remain my favorites. [Maybe customer service takes a back seat when you really want something and the price is right.]

Over the 4th of July weekend, at the Berkshires Arts Festival in Great Barrington, Mass., I saw something new for me: Flowers–hibiscus perhaps–in tropical colors, as large as the surface of a card table, made of basketry. They wouldn’t fit the style of my home–or would they? I can’t get them out of my mind.

One ceramist demonstrated how he shaped a vase on a wheel and another, how he achieved crackle on a bowl. No fancy ovens–he had well-used pots over fire and after he removed the bowl from one pot and poured water on it, he buried it in some mysterious looking natural concoction of blackened wood shavings and other natural elements.

Several glassmakers created remarkable under water-like scenes in pendants to paperweights. A beautiful young woman with a dazzling smile sold romantic, over-the top summer hats decorated with lace and posies in juicy colors. Nobody was in her booth the few times I walked by.  Jewelry counters attracted the biggest crowds. 

My husband is not a craft fair enthusiast. He gets the same happy, “I’ve been on a vacation for a while” feeling from watching a golf tournament or football game or from hearing an opera well staged and sung. What does it for you?

A participant in a careers program I attended shared her secrets of success one of which was that she never, ever went on vacation. On the rare occasion her husband pulled her away for a long weekend, she boasted that she worked the whole time.

She was a woman of a certain age, as the French politely refer to someone who is no spring chicken. I got the feeling that she was afraid that someone else would be sitting in her office chair if she left it for long.

I told her, after the program, that I had a hard time pulling myself away from the office too but that I benefited from every break mentally and physically, ideas flowed more easily and nothing seemed to annoy or stress me for a blessed while. [I left out the fact that clearing a desk before and after a break isn't fun.] She replied, “I hate vacations.” [How did she know?]

In The Wall Street Journal [June 1, 2009], “AstraZeneca, Merck to Test Cancer Drugs in ‘Cocktail,’” Ron Winslow wrote, “The collaboration, sparked by an encounter between scientists from the companies in an airport security line in Dublin, is based on laboratory evidence……” No doubt, the scientists were returning from a professional meeting, not from vacation, but even leaving the office for work helps loosen and clear mental debris.

Do you benefit from breaks from work or school? Do you think people who never take vacations are admired and those who take breaks are less worthy corporate citizens?