Summer's End

   "Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof" wrote Solomon of old. Now comes that bittersweet time of year when Summer starts packing up all her precious gifts and loading them into the car: down come the volley ball nets, the beach umbrellas, and -please!- not the grill!
   Maybe it's that I was born in this changing of the seasons that I find it so hauntingly beautiful. "Bittersweet" I called it because this is a time of new beginnings as the kids go back to school as well as a time of all too abruptly ending outdoor family fun.  Earlier this year I composed a piece I called "Signs o' Spring". I might well have titled this commentary "Omens of Autumn", but we like to keep things positive!

   As Hillary Clinton once said, "SIGH!". Look around, and behold, are these shrubs showing a touch of blush in their leaves? The nights are dropping in earlier, staying later, and feeling cooler. The apples are ripening, the schoolbuses are back on the roads, and Halloween costumes fill the department stores. Soon we'll see the gravid preying mantises, some green, some brown, scouting out the perfect reed or stalk to deposit their egg cases. 

   Isn't it strange how we always watch for that first robin of Spring, yet never seem to notice that final robin of Summer take wing to sunnier climes? Whatever hopes and dreams and plans we had for the summer; a beach day, a road trip, a camp-out, a cook-out, that tag sale---if we haven't got 'em done, we ain't gonna....not until next year!

   Now comes the season of State Fairs with all their fun, food, and fervor! Yeah, that's the sweet part! Get the native corn and tomatoes while you can, for soon the only local produce will be apples, pumpkins, squash, and ....kale? Did I mention the Oyster Festival?

   Soon golden and bronze chrysanthemums will be adorning doorways and walkways; sunflowers as big as your head and taller than you will be sharing their fruit with the squirrels and blue jays.  Say good-bye to watermelons, s'mores, and hot dogs! Good-bye to tank tops, shorts, and flip-flops! Summer is ending!

   Yes, Labor Day weekend is upon us, the "unofficial" end of summer. (Astronomically we have until September 21st.) And speaking of the ending of things, one of the rites of the passing of the seasons from my childhood is now gone forever. I remember as a kid this weekend always meant the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon , which my Dad would put on Sunday night and watch straight through to the final total on the board. I can almost see ol' Jerry getting choked up as he tries to sing "As You Walk Through the Storm".  Well my Dad is gone and now Jerry Lewis is, too.

   But that's what life is: change. Nothing here is permanent. Like an Etch-a-Sketch drawing it all vanishes away into a whole new picture. The blues and greens of Summer shall give way to the gold, russett, and orange of Fall. One season moves on to another. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof.

   Life is beautiful, and oddly enough, Summer's end is one of those things we love about life.