"August"

“August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.”
― Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

    When I was a child, I cannot say I was a huge fan of summer.  loved swimming and time at the lake or the beach but for myself, a slight chill in the air has always been refreshing.  The cooler air allowed me to feel more energetic and I could wear all of the wonderful sweaters my mother knitted for me as the fall season came and I waited patiently for the school bus to come each mornnig.  How I loved feeliing the briskness of the air.  August in our year of 2020 means that the precious few weeks left of summer are upon us and here I am, in 2020 wanting to feel "brisk" again.  But this August has a particular significance.  It is the August where we will all be forced again to reevaluate our behavior and our children's behavior as we face going back to  school.  

    The majority of students look forward to going back to school for so many reasons.  The social aspects, their teachers (hopefully) and for quite a few, it's a daily escape from their home situation.  This has all been written about many, many times.  However, this August has an anticipatory, feeling of dread, where so many factors are beyond our control and left to the common sense judgement, hopefully of parents, their children and of course, their teachers.  Unprecedented common sense and compassionate judgement towards others are needed.  It is a matter of life or death.  That very fact alone makes me feel unsettled and fearful.  See, I have much, much more that I want to do with my life and to put my hopes, my loved ones, and my world in peril seems just plain ridiculous when the solutions are so easy to do with the proper education and support.  I know for a fact that I am not alone in this.  Although, sometimes, it seems like it when we see so much happening in our immediate vicinity.

August.  I think about my grandmother, and my mother planting and harvesting their gardens.  There was always, ALWAYS, tremendous food on the table each night with plenty of discussion.  There were clambakes at the Whortekill Rod and Gun Club,  and picnics with my aunts, uncles and cousins.  No one felt isolated.  No one had to feel isolated unless they wanted to be.  In the midst of the heat, there was the anticipation of fall and in the fall, our world picked up its pace.  We knew what was expected and were reminded that our last names carried a certain responsibility once leaving the house.  There was a level of social awareness and the world changed due to the bravery and the courage of our communities.  The violence and the outrage we see today is a reminder that our society needs an adjustment in our treatment of others.  The world is changing and we cannot turn our backs to the very realities in front of us.  We must be better.  We must insist on "better." 

As August begins, September will surely follow and we must make the most of what we have.  There will be those in need of our help and we must teach, I say TEACH, our children the value of looking out for others.  We must remind them that their behavior effects their families and their communities.  They need to be told that positive behavior is what cures pandemics, not arrogance.  That a loving and social consciousness cures the social ills we witness, not ignorance.  I look forward to the cleansing chill in the air.