Summer   2015

The first defining characteristic is the glow everything has. The low sun sets everything in its path ablaze with light. A halo encircles everything from houses to plants, hinting that it's all holy. Then the dark frames the picture. The silhouettes, rather than reduce their objects to the second dimension, add character; they remind me that these objects aren't entirely holy, as no true character ought to be.

Someone once described these evenings as lazy. Perhaps he mistook sloth for savoring. All around people actively pursue their own delights, but many like me choose to construct memories in silence and slow movement rather than breath what's left of the summer air. Fool hardy, maybe, but who's to say writers are anything else? Mindlessly scribbling chicken marks that a portion of humanity can understand, and a smaller piece than that read. And we know how small humanity is in the universe.

Would a description of the moment be complete without cicadas? Annoying though they may be, they are a part of summer, so just as you must love the freckle if you are to wed Marilyn Monroe, so too must I see the symphony in the cicadas.

Oh, the symphony! Songs from the musical hits of the past challenge that freckle of summer! Jesus Christ Superstar always wins my heart, letting me relive Christ's passion from the lovely angles in the musical. Now none other than Christ reincarnated, the Man of La Mancha rides gallantry into my thoughts, wooing his Dulcinea as only the glory of summer would allow.

That story must have happened in summer, it's the only season conducive to hallucinations. Everything seems possible when you're suffering from a heat stroke, and why shouldn't it be? I'm toying with the idea that the only reason humanity hasn't become god is because fall came along to show man the folly of his ambition. If man could dream without the limits of clarity! After all, Peter nearly ran on water until he saw the impossibility of the activity. The Christmas spirit has nothing on July optimism.

Too bad my favorite month is October.