What is it about this country that we begrudge the success of others? Since when did we become so morally superior?
There's a trend going around these days called 'vacation shaming.' It's a rather disturbing movement in which some people - many? - are incredulous to learn that others have taken … gulp! … a leisure trip in the midst of a pandemic.
Interestingly enough, when I went to do some research on this column topic I was surprised to find that the phrase was first coined long before anybody started uttering the word 'coronavirus.' People were being 'vacation shamed' long before this.
A survey conducted more than three years ago by Allianz Global Assistance found that millennial workers in the United States were suffering the most from 'vacation shaming,' a term used to describe work environments where colleagues and bosses indirectly discourage employees from taking time off.
"Many Americans, millennials, in particular, are leaving vacation days on the table which could be the result of vacation shaming - the sense of shame, guilt, or other negative feelings received from co-workers for taking a vacation," Daniel Durazo, director of communications at Allianz Global Assistance USA, in a statement at the time.
That was three years ago.
Today, forget indirect. Forget subtlety. People are directly discouraging others from taking a vacation during the pandemic, labeling it as "selfish," "tone-deaf" or a more vicious combination of the two.
I have questions about that. Oh, do I have questions.
My first is, why?
Please explain to me why you are bothered by this, specifically and immediately? Tell me how you are directly affected by a neighbor running off to a cabin in the woods or how you feel snubbed by Kim Kardashian renting a private plane and island, testing all who traveled with her for COVID, and running off to celebrate her 40th birthday?
Tacky? Maybe. Shameful? Not really.
My next question is, tell me you wouldn't go on a vacation right now if you had the time and the means? Look, I get it. We're all cooped up, when we do go out we need to mask up, and this coronavirus is far more deadly than previous flu seasons we have seen in this country. It's unprecedented. The death toll is incomprehensible.
And while I still think we all should wear masks, going into complete lockdown again this winter as we did in the spring would do far more damage.
This vacation shaming is ridiculous. I liken it to what I have long called 'selective patriotism.' That is, I have always felt that people come out of the woodwork and fly their flags and scream about being patriots only when prompted by an event, such as the Sept. 11 attacks. To be clear, there's nothing wrong with that. But where is the patriotism for the very simple and real point of just being a patriot and flying your flag every day? After you read this, go take a drive around your neighborhood. How many people have a flag flying outside their homes right now?
No, this vacation shaming isn't about the masses getting out the feel-good, rah-rah, it's-for-the-good-of-the-country stuff anymore. It's about petty jealousies and moral high grounds.
Is travel a factor in spreading the coronavirus? Yes, unless precautions are taking. But that could be true of any endeavor. Tell me, have you ordered a pizza or a meal lately and wondered who touched it? Have you done grocery shopping and wondered if another person before picked up that jar or that gallon of ice cream to look at the price or read the label, and then put it back?
We might as well deliver-shame, then. Or maybe grocery-shame. Or stop traveling to the nail salon, or to get gas.
But I guess pulling up to the Sunoco station hasn't reached that level of moral high ground yet that travel apparently has.
Think twice before you shame someone for living their life.
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