It’s the beginning of Labor Day weekend, the official end of summer here in the US.
A complicated web of feelings comes with this three day weekend and for the first time I’m going to try and illustrate them.
As I get older, this weekend gets more and more layered with poignancy. The day after Labor Day Monday used to be the day AT&T (back when it was a monolith) said more calls were placed on that Tuesday than any other day in the year.
The to do list of projects, home and life, begins in three days. I’ve got to get my calls prioritized and then I have to realize for some things on the to do list, there is no longer a number.
I told you it was a complicated web of feelings, didn’t I?
Here we go, but where?
Come sit a spell, let’s talk.
I’ll get the ice.
©Pat Coakley 2009
PHOTOGRAPHS CANNOT BE USED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION
My new photoblog, Singular Sensation, features more Muddah Nature photos plus Photo Rules! 18, so far. Who knew I was such a ruly-type person?
Wow! What a wonderful image — far more than just an illustration.
It is interesting how the change of seasons, marked symbolically by Labor Day drive so much daily activity. After the summer fun, the day after Labor Day thoughts turn to more serious matters of work, school, and preparing for the winter ahead. Upon arriving in the tropics, the lack of this seasonal impetus was one of the first things that struck me. Yes, it’s storm season and it rains more this time of year, but we don’t need to tighten up the house against the cold, bring in the wood, clean out the garden, or most of those other tasks. We can do them next month, or or the month after that… it won’t really matter.
I wonder to what extent the lack of 4 seasons in the tropics contributes to a cultural divide between temperate and tropical zones, or at least to the Scandinavian work ethic so familiar from my years in Minnesota?
Hey, Don. This image kills me for some reason so am glad you liked it. That is so interesting about the differences that climate can bring. Minnesota and St. Croix…wow. This sounds like a topic more should be written about, no? If not words, images?
I am sorry I was logged in as audrey… I was working on someone else’s blog today and for some odd reason wordpress didn’t like my password today.
Oh! Thanks for the explanation. Cuz I was thinking, “Audrey’s in California?? I thought she was in New Jersey.”
nice shot
Hey, thanks! Always think of you when I photograph the Queen Anne’s Lace by the pond.
Why do you have to get your calls prioritized? Who cares what day or season it is? Or better yet, why care? We humans have imposed our ten little fingers on the universe to divide it up into small bite sized sections and try and make sense of it all. The thing is, is that the universe doesn’t care about us counting things and carries on regardless. Life goes on (with or without us), and those of us who are still alive, are forced to go on living through whatever season it is.
A wise man once asked the question, “what time is it?”
It’s rhetorical question, becasue the answer in a cosmic sense is, “now”. Not what ever the clock says, because the clock is only a construct our our tiny little minds to help us divide up the days so we can wrap our tiny little minds around time. The actual truth is that it’s always “now”.
The ever present now is all there is. The past is gone and the future is unkowable untill it arrives and then it is, “now”.
So Pat, come back to the now, focus on being wholeheartedly in the the moment, NOW”.
As the old hippies used to say, “be here now”
I don’t know about you Pat, but I’m here for a good time, not a long.
What are you drinking over there, Razz? Calm down, traveler. You are right that the universe doesn’t care about my priorities one bit. But, I do.
Did you bring your cholesterol medicine on your trip? Yes, I suspect you did. Priorities–one would call it, no?
Did you buy a French version of Photoshop so you could process your Raw photos? Yes, you did. Why? You could have shot in jpeg, right? Why? Because of priorities that you feel make your “now” better.
That’s all I’m saying here. Remember, I live in New England. We have seasons, not of any overwrought personal construction, but courtesy of the universe itself. It teaches me things if I’m willing to learn.
Summer ends.
So do we all.
Gulp.
If I want to make the best of my “now” I’d better put a boot in my hind quarters and make some calls.
Now, travel on and do some posts about the food you are eating will you? Cuz this old hippie knows you must be encountering some delightful fatty foods over there in Paris and Amsterdam.