Bemoaning Summer

Man, it seems like it's almost over. Summer that is.

When I was a kid, it seemed like summer went on forever. It began right after Memorial Day and we went back to school the day after Labor Day. Even in high school, the football practices and band camps and yearbook people didn't have to show up until mid-August.

My kids are having a different experience, too. We had plenty of time to get good and bored. My family usually found our way to the beach at some point, for a week, and a couple of weekends at the grandparent's cabin on the Warrior River. But my days were mostly mowing two yards in the neighborhood, and then heading up to the private pool in our community and/or playing some sort of outside game like baseball or frisbee golf or something.

Once in high school, I worked 8 hours a day and played baseball or softball on some organized league teams at night...hanging out afterwards.

What we didn't have were "voluntary" sports/activites ("you don't have to attend, but if you don't the coaches/director won't let you be a starter/have first chair") or yearbook meetings or some mandatory orientation or whatever.

And even if we did, summer was 12 weeks long then. In our community, they don't get out until the first week of June and classes actually start August 12. By the time you grab vacation, there's about 6 weeks of summer since everybody who's involved in anything has to be back by August 1 to get involved in their "thing."

I wish they'd just go to the quarter system and year-round school instead of all this pretense.

And it reaffirms my belief that we've lost the idea of how to "rest." The Europeans might actually be on to something with their mandatory 38.5 hour work weeks and lengthy summer holidays.

Busyness is the enemy of spirituality. Eugene Peterson said that. For some reason, today, I believe it in what I'm seeing in my quaint, crime-free community.