Something's Comin'




August 4th, 2008, a Monday

August means back to school for most kids while the lazy summer begins to wind down.  On the East Coast, everyone is still enjoying the warm weather and August is a signal that fall cannot be far away so they want to make the most of the precious remaining days of summer.  Fall means winter is next with its shorter days and cold temperatures and coats and scarves and boots and hot chocolate and snowfall and dreariness.  All of this means the passing of time, the coming and going of the seasons, and the traditions that go along with each of them. 

Of course, here in the desert we look forward to the passing of the extreme heat just the way the East Coast waits for winter to pass.  The plants that survived the summer heat will show off all winter long, grateful for a sun that doesn't try to kill them dead. 

Starting on Friday, there are the Olympic Games in China.  It can be kinda discouraging as we anticipate the fun of watching on tv, to hear all about who tested positive for what performance enhancing drugs and cannot compete.  I guess that's better than watching them win a medal and then find out they took drugs so the one who really gets the medal doesn't get the thrill of that winning moment they worked for their whole life.  Cheating is like that, I guess.  It seems to rob everyone of almost everything.  Why, they just took away a US track relay team's medals from years ago because one of them was doping.  Wow, what a bummer for the other three.  But would they have won if the guy wasn't doping?  No way to know, I guess.  And then there are all those human rights issues we keep hearing about in China.  It is confusing to me as to why they awarded China the games knowing all these things and then bring them up later as if they were a surprise. 

I remember watching women's gymnastics in past Olympics when floor exercise was more about dancing to the music rather than just very difficult tumbling passes and increasingly more dangerous layout double back flips with triple twists and whatever.  Their bodies are getting more muscular and testy and it is hard to think of them as young girls.  I understand that this is natural progress, just like athletes swimming and running faster than they used to and all.  But I keep wondering where it all goes from here.  Will we ever get back the beauty we have sacrificed in the name of raw power?  Does anyone think we should?  Besides me? 

I don't know where I am going with this except to say that the end of the summer always seems to make people ponder things.  They sit on the beach, reading that last summer novel, knowing that pretty soon it is back to work or school and before you know it, the holidays will be here.  We want to think of that period between Thanksgiving and Christmas as magical and warm and full of family memories.  When in reality it can sometimes be unbelievably stressful and exhausting and expensive and a trigger for the worst in family dynamics.  I like to ponder how we might take the parts of the fall and holiday season we love and capture them and let go of the parts that really suck.  Maybe limit the presents to make it cheaper and give more meaning to each precious one.  That only works if you don't have to buy dozens of them, sending you into a crazed frenzy.  Start new traditions.  Imagine all the cool things that you could think of to change the holidays for the better if you dared. 

This morning a tv preacher said that he heard that most people who leave their marriage are 80% satisfied with their spouse and leave for the 20% they don't have.  And the cycle continues because you cannot get 100% from any spouse.  I would imagine that is pretty much true of life as well.  If you have 80%, he said, then stick with it.  Work on the 20% and count yourself lucky.  Just like I said.  Keep the good stuff, and work on changing the not so good.  Who says you have to do things tomorrow the same way you did them today or yesterday?  Shake it up.  Don't think of summer as the end of something you love.  Think of fall as the beginning of something to come.  It's only just out of reach, down the block, on a beach, under a tree.  At least that's what Tony said (sang) in West Side Story.  Only it turned out to be the end of him. 

GR