Say Goodbye to August
For the most part, a year marks a series of gradual transitions. Fall moves us toward winter, and in turn winter gives in gradually to the demands of Spring, which in turn gives way to Summer, the season for growing to maturity. Like a literary work, every season foreshadows the next. The exception is August.
August is the lazy month. Dozing beside a brook with a line in the water. Laying on your back in a mowed field soaking in the warm sun which has browned you skin sufficiently in earlier months relieving worry about a burn. If there is any sense of rush it is to do all the non productive things you’ve looked forward to as you have labored through the previous 11 months. Then comes September, like a cold shower after a swim in a warm lake.
August is a time for shorts, bare feet and picnics. September is for creased slacks, polished shoes, and power lunches. August is a time to harvest what we have reaped to be sated by life’s bounty. September is back to school, back from vacation, a time for new beginnings and new expectations. August was a gentle ride down a slow moving stream, the first week of September is the waterfall. Forget what you might have learned in American History Class, the real meaning of Labor Day is “it’s Time to Get Back to Work.” In the late days of August you can usually fool yourself that you have left the demands of the modern age behind, but September is the rude awakening.
This is not to say that we hate to see September come. Most of us like our work and the people we work with and getting back to that world is a mixed blessing. I can remember my mixed feelings on the first day of school after summer vacation. Once our batteries are recharged an inner voice calls us to invest that energy in a new project.
August life is a simple life. September is back to demands and stresses of the world outside us. I am a fan of Henry David Thoreau. I know he advised us to simplify, simplify, but I think he got it wrong. It is the complications, the challenges, the demands of living that make my life worthwhile. Pursuing a career challenge, running for local office, joining a club, having children, having pets. They all make life more complicated, and the give us the memories which we treasure.
I have retired from the profession of law. My wife still labors at important and good work. I have tried to take on the burdens of homemaker and had modest success. But Barbara found me deficient. Back when she ran our home it was a chaotic scene, full of daily drama. We had kids, multiple dogs and cats. Last year our son Nick who now has a home of his own reclaimed his cat and for the first time in our marriage we were without dependents in residence. As Labor Day approached Barbara issued an ultimatum, "We were going to the Shelter to get a kitten." On hearing this I reminded her that for the last year I had been thinking of getting a dog again. This did not prompt a negotiation over which pet to get, Barbara simply said, “Fine. You get a dog and we’ll have both again. "
So as is so often the case, after months for an idea to gestate, in a matter of days we had welcomed Guy Noir (black cat) and Hudson (2 parts Golden, 1 part Poodle) to our home. Order has given way to chaos. Yesterday I was Henry Higgins.
I'm was a quiet living man,
who preferred to spend the evening in the silence of my room,
who liked an atmosphere as restful
as an undiscovered tomb.
A pensive man was I, of philosophic joys,
who liked to meditate, contemplate,
free from humanity's mad inhuman noise.
Just a quiet living man.
But, let a puppy and a kitten in your life and your serenity is through.
So memories once dormant, of midnight demands and unending mess generation are once again trying our near perfect dispositions. Last night Barbara went to take Hudson out and he peed on the floor. Oh yes, we remember this. And later when we watched Guy and Hudson play together, we remembered that and our world is once again filled with the magic of new life. Thank you Barbara and the month celbrates your birth and Labor Day. September is once again upon us!
August is the lazy month. Dozing beside a brook with a line in the water. Laying on your back in a mowed field soaking in the warm sun which has browned you skin sufficiently in earlier months relieving worry about a burn. If there is any sense of rush it is to do all the non productive things you’ve looked forward to as you have labored through the previous 11 months. Then comes September, like a cold shower after a swim in a warm lake.
August is a time for shorts, bare feet and picnics. September is for creased slacks, polished shoes, and power lunches. August is a time to harvest what we have reaped to be sated by life’s bounty. September is back to school, back from vacation, a time for new beginnings and new expectations. August was a gentle ride down a slow moving stream, the first week of September is the waterfall. Forget what you might have learned in American History Class, the real meaning of Labor Day is “it’s Time to Get Back to Work.” In the late days of August you can usually fool yourself that you have left the demands of the modern age behind, but September is the rude awakening.
This is not to say that we hate to see September come. Most of us like our work and the people we work with and getting back to that world is a mixed blessing. I can remember my mixed feelings on the first day of school after summer vacation. Once our batteries are recharged an inner voice calls us to invest that energy in a new project.
August life is a simple life. September is back to demands and stresses of the world outside us. I am a fan of Henry David Thoreau. I know he advised us to simplify, simplify, but I think he got it wrong. It is the complications, the challenges, the demands of living that make my life worthwhile. Pursuing a career challenge, running for local office, joining a club, having children, having pets. They all make life more complicated, and the give us the memories which we treasure.
I have retired from the profession of law. My wife still labors at important and good work. I have tried to take on the burdens of homemaker and had modest success. But Barbara found me deficient. Back when she ran our home it was a chaotic scene, full of daily drama. We had kids, multiple dogs and cats. Last year our son Nick who now has a home of his own reclaimed his cat and for the first time in our marriage we were without dependents in residence. As Labor Day approached Barbara issued an ultimatum, "We were going to the Shelter to get a kitten." On hearing this I reminded her that for the last year I had been thinking of getting a dog again. This did not prompt a negotiation over which pet to get, Barbara simply said, “Fine. You get a dog and we’ll have both again. "
So as is so often the case, after months for an idea to gestate, in a matter of days we had welcomed Guy Noir (black cat) and Hudson (2 parts Golden, 1 part Poodle) to our home. Order has given way to chaos. Yesterday I was Henry Higgins.
I'm was a quiet living man,
who preferred to spend the evening in the silence of my room,
who liked an atmosphere as restful
as an undiscovered tomb.
A pensive man was I, of philosophic joys,
who liked to meditate, contemplate,
free from humanity's mad inhuman noise.
Just a quiet living man.
But, let a puppy and a kitten in your life and your serenity is through.
So memories once dormant, of midnight demands and unending mess generation are once again trying our near perfect dispositions. Last night Barbara went to take Hudson out and he peed on the floor. Oh yes, we remember this. And later when we watched Guy and Hudson play together, we remembered that and our world is once again filled with the magic of new life. Thank you Barbara and the month celbrates your birth and Labor Day. September is once again upon us!