End of summer during my lifetime in the Northeast has always put me in mind of the fable of the ant and grasshopper. The frugal hardworking ant preparing to survive a harsh winter to come, the grasshopper fiddling and dancing the whole day long with no thought of tomorrow.
For many years, the persistent rhythms of culture around me reinforced that story. Vacation was ending. Back to school, back to work, lots of new projects, return to grim reality. The inevitable degradation of weather as we lost sunlight and headed into a long tunnel of cold and dark.
These days it seems a similar “fin de siecle” mood has seized the entire world all the time. As in late summer, life seems pretty fine today. But the aging boomers are suddenly running hard into personal mortality and decay. Youth has been stridently informed that nature is dying and the world may soon be much worse than anything they have known.
Most folks are grabbing fiddles and enjoying life while they can. A few stubborn ants are grimly digging burrows hoping that there will be a springtime. And the less emotionally well equipped simply go crazy.
I sit on a beautiful beach in hot sun, watching children play and elders sunbathe, while boats glide on the harbor. It is only in my mind’s eye that the future appears so terrible. For most of my life, I have often embraced the grasshopper mode, and right now I am extremely grateful for having done so.
HuntingtonHarborThoughts 