October

I said to a friend over lunch yesterday, "October is just whipping by!"

I remember these days when I was teaching - once we broke through the August heat to the invigorating cool of September and once I recovered from the nervous insomnia of the night before the first day of school, energy set in. I said "yes!" to everything and everyone - chair a committee? Yes! Be the school's sole speech and debate coach? Absolutely! Take some club to Great America's Spook Fest? Abso-friggin'-lutely!

Even now, when my committee meetings have only three in attendance, two of whom are likely to strip off their clothes to run screaming around the living room in their undies, I feel this capability that wants to fill fill fill the calendar now while we are still full of summer's light, now at the commencement of the great holiday arc. The season is a beautiful pendulum's journey that begins with the start of school, gains speed and momentum with Mia's birthday, then flies through our communal celebrations - the laughter at death, the remembrance of gratitude, the lighting the darkness, and the beginning anew. The pendulum slows as we have yet another cake for Eleanor on January 7 then with my birthday at the end of January, dumps us into the slush pile of lethargy that is Februarymarchapril.

But now is a time crazy with possibility - both wonderful and terrifying. The Cubs AND the Sox in the playoffs? Unbelievable. An elderly hothead and a newbie who can't name a magazine or newspaper may end up leading the nation? Where's my suitcase? A wise and equanimous pair may end up leading the nation? Where are my noisemakers? Our entire economy is in crisis? Vancouver would be a lovely place to live. The $700 billion will be returned to the nation with interest? Pass me an apple, please. The Honeycrisp would be lovely.