It's summer and there's always something going on that delights, puzzles, draws us in...4th of July marking the season's peak. Fact is, schools already are posting their registration dates for local high school students. Push. Pull. I'm sure many of them want to go and get through it ASAP.
For me summer offers a chance to slow a bit and think back on times when I did more. Walked more dogs, drank more beer, not necessarily in that order and certainly not simultaneously. Gosh, no, that would never work. But I do think about how lazy I get every time I go to the notorious used book shelf in our home and select something to read.
All right, I confess I have read 5 books already this MONTH. It's only the 9th. I hear ya! Well, hubby was gone and it was me and the critters. But, add to that the sheer fact that I recently was told by my BFF that I'm to read more upbeat, more pleasant books. My fave authors have a distinct tendency to present a complex arrangement of characters experiencing downers. I'm an avowed fan in that I promise to help them find their way out. Still, she's right. It sometimes pulls me in too far and I end up owning the fictional person's troubles, trying my best to solve the problems which have no real foundation.
So I turn to my own small world. Thankfully I have an inspiration having just finished a book of true-life articles, written by a fairly famous author and his small town living. Makes me want to move and my town is only about 3500 in population so it's small by many comparisons.
Why do I turn? Well, it seems my big observation is that our world country truly has become more self-absorbed over the past decade. We seem to state "It's not about me." while at the same time taking actions as if it is. Little inconveniences become mountainous episodes, the details of which we are pleased to share and repeat to anyone whose breath will appear on a mirror if we hold one up to the person's mouth.
Summer here has become a bickering time. I'm severely saddened by that. There's so much to be thankful for and happy about and yet we seem to drill for disaster not for joy. Is it like that where you are?
I hope not. I hope this is a passing non-fancy here in the midwestern small town in which I reside. Turmoil has resided here for the past 3 or 4 years. It's topped now with the presence of a non-professional who was hired into a professional role. No one knows why an appropriate, educated candidate could not be hired. It has the town divided for the person presides (by self-promotion) over a foundational and pivotal area of our community. Always proud of our higher educational achievements and challenges we now are subjected to cupcake wars and bad grammar, giggles and "Duh, I don't know" responses.
But, we all know what goes around comes around. I hope next year at this time I'm able to tell my BFF that I've already selected the upbeat books for summer reading and that all is well once again in this small town where we remember when everything was right as right could be and we've turned things around accordingly.