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The Progress
Editorial
August 17,2023
Take a Break
dMbc ikljciol
By Christie Pool
Staff Writer
christie@pickensprogress.com
I attended the funeral on Saturday of
my aunt who passed away at the age of
89. During the service her son-in-law
gave a beautiful eulogy, speaking of her
famous pecan pies, her dedication to her
job as a bus driver in Cobb County and
of how much she enjoyed cooking and
spending time with her family.
Work is important, she obviously felt,
but family that’s the most important of
all.
It made me think of the opening scene
to the movie Love, Actually. Hugh
Grant’s character voices the introduction:
“Whenever I get gloomy with the state of
the world, I think about the arrivals gate
at London’s Heathrow Airport.” The
scene showed footage of real passengers
arriving or leaving, all excited about vis
iting family and friends, lots of hugging
and tears.
Then on Monday, I found an email in
my inbox from the Pew Research Center
that showed more than 4 in 10 U.S.
workers don’t take their paid time off.
Which means a full 46% of us who actu
ally receive paid time off aren’t taking
that time we have earned/are given to
rest, relax or spend time with family.
Are Americans such workaholics that
we can’t imagine the world could possi
bly keep on churning if we aren’t at our
desks?
Pew showed that upper-income work
ers are more likely than middle- and
lower-income workers to say they take
off less time than offered. And about half
of upper-income workers (51 %) say this,
compared with 45% of middle-income
workers and 41% of lower-income work
ers. You climb that ladder and then don’t
want to come down, even for a little rest.
Salaried workers, the study found, are
more likely than hourly workers to take
less paid time off than their employer of
fers (52% vs. 39%). Managers are more
likely than nonmanagers to say they take
less time off than available (54% vs.
42%). And 68% of workers in education
and 57% in government, public adminis
tration or the military say they take less
time off than offered.
While many people fear they will fall
behind at work if they head out for a va
cation, others say they’d feel badly about
their co-workers taking on additional
work, according to Pew. Women are
more likely than men to say that feeling
badly about co-workers taking on addi
tional work is a reason they take less time
off than offered (48% vs. 39%).
Since March of 2020, an overwhelm
ing majority of U.S. employees have
shortened, postponed or canceled their
vacation time, according to one survey.
Another study found that 26% of respon
dents had never taken two weeks of va
cation at one time.
Leaving vacation time on the table is
taking its toll on us. Apparently working
55 hours or more a week was associated
with a 35% higher risk of stroke and a
17% higher risk of dying from heart dis
ease than a workweek of 35 to 40 hours
according to the World Health Organiza
tion. Clearly, we need to take more time
off.
Taking time away from work im
proves heart health and reduces the risk
of high blood pressure, high blood sugar,
excess belly fat and abnormal cholesterol
levels. Vacations reduce our stress and
help us to sleep better.
We don’t all have to head to the beach
- although it’s nice if we can. Quick stay-
cations — camping for a weekend or a
three-day weekend to a nearby attraction
will greatly help your mood and health
without straining a budget.
And we might just do a better job at
our jobs if we take that vacation. Taking
time off improves our capacity to learn
because, research shows, that when our
brains are completely relaxed, it consol
idates knowledge and brainpower. That's
why we have our best ideas on a walk, in
the shower or on vacation. So go on, take
that vacation. Your boss might actually
thank you when you come back all fresh,
ready to jump back in to work again with
renewed vigor.
Don’t be a vacation slacker. Put the
guilt aside and plan your next holiday.
Your body and mind will thank you.
Tell us your thoughts with a letter to the editor. E-mail to news@pickensprogress.com
See letter submission guidelines on the Letters to the Editor page or call us 706-253-2457.
Farmers Market report
Suzette Hermann and daughter Julie rolled in Saturday
morning with a truckload of tomatoes they grew.
By Heather Giambra
Figs. Mushrooms. And so
much more to be had at the
Jasper Farmers Market. So
much so that there is a Sum
mer market on Wednesday
from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m.
Great time for a lunch run if
you are at work. However,
only three Wednesdays left
for the summer market. Still
plenty at the Saturday market
for you to find delicious
choices for your dinners, in
cluding meats. You might
want to get your meat straight
from the source from one of
our local vendors.
And if you have a sweet
tooth go to Kim’s Kitchen
and try their homemade
caramels, jellies, or muffins
or you might want to try
frozen grapes, the perfect
Summer treat from Crack-ah-
Licious. Plus, for the lover of
greens there were two ven
dors with microgreens this
week. They are sort of a
shortcut to a salad. Zach and
Meagan still have plenty of
shallots for the discriminat
ing home chef. Also note,
they have beautiful Indian
popcorn. A com of many col
ors, as it were.
The woodworkers have
been busy making trellis,
planter boxes to accent your
porch or garden spaces, plus,
benches and raised planter
boxes for a homegrown mini
veg bed. Be sure to look for
some of the other creative
woodworks like cutting
boards, trinket drawers, and
puzzles.
Speaking of puzzles,
Christine, of Christine’s Cre
ations, offers an interesting
sewn fidget maze to keep lit
tle (or big) hands busy! She
has quality dish towels to
hang on the oven door, apron
shirts, pacifier bibs, as well
as bibs for big people! Have
you got a hole in your lip?
The Jasper Farmers Mar
ket is located by Lee Newton
Park across from the Veterans
Memorial in the Park-N-Ride
parking lot. Saturday hours
are 7:30-12. The FM is spon
sored by the Master Garden
ers of Pickens County. They
will have one more plant tent
sale in September.
(USPS 431-820)
Published by Pickens County Progress, Inc.
94 North Main Street, Jasper, GA 30143
(706) 253-2457
www.pickensprogressonline.com
DAN POOL
Publisher/Editor
Published each Thursday at Jasper, Pickens County, Georgia.
Entered at the Post Office at Jasper, Georgia 30143
as Mail Matter of Second Class.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to
PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS, 94 N. Main St., Jasper, GA 30143.
One Year Subscription: $41.17 for residents of Pickens County
or the cities of Ball Ground, Fairmount, and Ranger;
$52.30 for all other Georgia residents; $62.32 out of state residents.
Senior Moments
People who are
exhausted or
stressed tend to
experience deja
vu more.
By Mary Migliaro
Senior Golden Girl
Feel like you’ve been here
before? It might be Deja Vu.
I have these moments occa
sionally, and it is a little
weird! What is it like? Here’s
an example.
You walk into a room, and
you suddenly feel like you’ve
been there before — even
though you know you
haven’t. The feeling is over
whelming, then it disappears
just as quickly as it came on.
The eerie feeling that
you’ve been here and done
this before is called deja vu.
It’s French for “already
seen,” and it can be a very
strange and even unsettling
experience. Logically, you
know you haven’t experi
enced this moment before,
but your brain is telling you
otherwise.
There’s no conclusive ev
idence on how common it ac
tually is, but varying
estimates suggest anywhere
between 60 and 80 percent of
the population experience
this phenomenon.
While deja vu is a com
mon experience, it’s still
widely misunderstood. The
reason simply is it’s hard to
shidy in a laboratory, so our
understanding is limited.
There are a few theories,
though, about what might
lead to this “glitch” in the
brain.
There is a theory of split
perception that suggests deja
vu happens when you see
something two separate
times. The first time you see
something, you might take it
in out of the comer of your
eye or while distracted.
Your brain can begin
forming a memory of what
you see even with the limited
amount of information you
get from a brief, incomplete
glance. So, you might actu
ally take in more than you re
alize. If your first view of
something, like the view
from a hillside, didn’t involve
your complete attention, you
might believe you’re seeing it
for the first time.
In other words, since you
didn’t give the experience
your full attention the first
time it entered your percep
tion, it feels like two different
events. But it’s really just one
continued perception of the
same event.
A healthy brain can expe
rience deja vu. The sensation
is more likely to happen to
people who travel often and
Deja Vu
have college or advanced de
grees. And it can peak in
young adulthood, but gradu
ally go away with age. The
common factor here? Being
busy, tired, and a little bit
stressed out.
People who are exhausted
or stressed tend to experience
deja vu more. This is proba
bly because fatigue and stress
are connected with what
likely causes most cases of
deja vu: memory.
Some experts believe an
other type of brain malfunc
tion may cause deja vu.
When your brain absorbs
information, it generally fol
lows a specific path from
short-term memory storage
to long-term memory stor
age. The theory suggests that,
sometimes, short-term mem
ories can take a shortcut to
long-term memory storage.
This can make you feel as
if you’re retrieving a long-
ago memory rather than
something that happened in
the last second.
Many people have experi
enced or will experience the
feeling of having been some
where or experienced a situ
ation before. In many cases,
it’s fleeting and goes away
quickly — and that’s that.
But it can be a sign of some
thing more serious — such as
epilepsy — if you have other
symptoms that accompany
deja vu.
For most healthy individ
uals, deja vu has no serious
impact, other than a bit of a
feeling of confusion momen
tarily. However, if you are
experiencing frequent deja vu
(a few times a week or more),
you may want to visit a neu
rologist to be evaluated for
epilepsy or any other neuro
logical conditions.
More often, though, it just
means you might need to get
a little more sleep or partici
pate in an activity that can
help lower your stress levels.
So, if you occasionally ex
perience deja vu, don’t
worry. It happens to all of us
at some point.
[Mary Migliaro, the Sen
ior Golden Girl, contributes
a regular parenting column
to the Progress as well as
Senior Moment columns. She
may be reached at
marymigliaro@aol.com re
garding parenting/family
questions.]
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