Infinite Summer

Do you remember what life was like when you were younger?  Time was measured by passing Summer days full of relationships, family visits, vacations, and the sweet beauty of life.  Sometimes I wonder where that method of keeping time went.  It was sssooo nice to be able to recall memories from ‘the summer before last’ without a need to reference a month or year.  This carefree mindset allowed us to truly live in the moment without a worry for the future or the past.  When the bell rang on the last day of school, nothing else mattered save getting out of that classroom and living your life.  We were afforded the freedom so often yearned for by thousands of people throughout the world.  No one bothered to think of the past because school was out and its time had passed.  No one dared glance an eye into the future as that would mean accepting that the Summer would end and classes would begin again.  So we were left with the glorious treasure that was the here and now.  When you were running through the sprinklers in your front yard, you barely knew how you were going to spend the remainder of your evening, let alone the rest of your life, and this is the definition of true happiness.

Unfortunately, many of us have lost this wonderful gift of freedom.  Summers no longer have their illustrious grander, and instead have been replaced with the hectic rat race.  By the time Junior year of High School comes around, we are all barraged with ‘advice’ about planning the rest of our lives.  Everyone is told to get good little grades, so they can get into a good little school, so they can get a good little job, so they can raise a good little family, and eventually retire in a good little RV.  However somewhere along the way, Summers get lost in the shuffle.  No one cares that the weather has warmed, and the grass is green, because the work still has to get done.  For most, a Monday in the Summer sucks equally as much as one in the Winter.  At this point you can no longer consider them Summers, they are just warmer weeks of the year.  The ideal that IS Summer is almost dead.

Like most things that are fading away into the distance, I can still remember my last Summer.  It involved little to no work, sunny days at the park with someone I loved, lazy afternoon sex in an air conditioned house, and more lemonade and iced tea then I knew what to do with.  Here’s a challenge: try to remember your last Summer and post it in the comments below.

Now, I am not advocating a complete loss of responsibility and control, but we need to remember to celebrate the simple idea of not caring about the future.  Everyone should take next Summer to inhale deeply and calm themselves.  We should use this Summer to remember that life is not about climbing to the top of the ladder as quickly as possible, but it is about enjoying the view on the way up.  We need to start measuring our life by Summers of fun and freedom instead of measuring it by the money in the bank, or the property value of our home.  Mainly we need to start living our lives a little bit more like we did when we were kids.  I think we will all smile, a little more.