Last month, I suggested that we schedule a staff canoe trip and picnic for this afternoon, knowing it would be Day 2 of my return from China and planning to use the occasion to nap outside. The weather cooperated perfectly. I dozed in the sun on a grassy bank by a mountain lake, with a Berkshire blue sky and huge glossy clouds to look at when I occasionally opened my eyes. I made sure to get plenty of sun on back of knees. That’s an old military trick for curing jetlag, unproven by serious scientific research, but now part of our family method.

I only realized today that US-China travel has a tremendous advantage. The jetlag we experience is the same both ways, which makes it easier to manage systematically. European travel is less of a change, but it’s a different change in each direction