If you’re a Washington news junkie in search of a genuinely restorative holiday, may I recommend that you skip the spa, forego the tropical surf, and instead follow a few simple steps? First, pile your children into the car and drive to northern Maine. Somewhere along the way, manage to lose your cellphone charger, and then take up temporary residence in a small rented condo with no Internet connection and a faulty landline near the last of the skiable winter snow.

Don’t ski? Don’t drive? No problem. The important thing — the really relaxing part, as I learned inadvertently last week — is to find oneself spending several days without recourse to any sort of entertainment that requires electricity, or any method of communication apart from speaking with people who are in the same room as you.