Holding On To Autumn
The leaves are still hanging on. Barely
There was a chill in the air for the first time a few days ago that was significant enough that I felt autumn might have captured a foothold. There was a gentle quietness to it, and I tried to close my eyes and enjoy it.
Now is the time to pay attention because soon enough, there won’t be any time to think about the weather. The rush of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the new year comes barreling down the runway, and there won’t be a moment’s peace.
I tried to hold on to the first moments of the season before the season. It isn’t easy.
I’ve been incredibly busy with work and family, and it’s hard to stop and smell the Fall in the air. Rest and rejuvenation are hard to come by these days. Still, autumn has restorative powers if I can just find a little slice of time.
It is an oasis, set apart from the hustle and bustle of life. There are so many things requiring my attention and energy that I feel I’m not providing enough, and I'm not letting myself enjoy the moments of downtime.
Maybe it’s all in my perspective? Do I need to change my attitude? Is it because my attention is scattershot? Maybe I should focus on myself.
The calendar has flipped to November now, but the weather seems stuck in October. The trees stubbornly cling to their leaves, though the vibrant reds have faded to rusty browns. Halloween already feels like a distant memory. The decorations that transformed our neighborhood into a playful haunted landscape have vanished.
In their place, homes are about to be adorned with strings of lights and wreaths on doors as the holiday season fast approaches. The race toward Christmas has begun. Yet part of me wants to cling to fall like the trees clinging to their leaves. I’m not ready to let go of sweatshirts and shorts, football, and crisp evenings. The coziness of the season feels like an old friend I’m not ready to say goodbye to just yet.
My wife loves holidays. She loves it all, from the twinkling lights to the gift buying and the general feeling of joy and togetherness. For her, it can’t come soon enough. It also means her job ramps up to eleven with a pace that is indescribable to someone outside of her day-to-day work. Meanwhile, I want to slow time down to enjoy the coziness of the season for a bit longer. But time marches on indifferently.
Heading out for a workout a couple of days ago, I was bundled up in my jacket and hat, the cold air nipping at my face. The time has changed, so it’s still as dark as night at this early hour. Lost in thought, I almost trip over a curb at my local YMCA. A reminder to stay present, to enjoy the beauty of today instead of dwelling in memories or anxiety about what’s coming. The air is clear. The leaves are still hanging on for a little longer, which, if you think about it, is a gift to be appreciated.
I close my eyes. I am attuned to my other senses. Crisp air. Quiet stillness. The sound of a leaf gently floating to the grass.
As I round the corner back towards home from my morning workout, I see that a few houses have Christmas trees in their windows, and I have to smile. Their enthusiasm is contagious, even if I’m not quite ready myself.
Walking back inside, I kissed my wife, and we chatted about our upcoming day and weekend. Maybe this Sunday, we’ll pull out our holiday decorations. I still want to hold onto autumn for a few more weeks, but before long, twinkling lights and Hallmark movies will fill our home, too. The seasons change. Time moves forward. The holidays have their own magic, especially when shared with those you love.
For now, I’ll enjoy the coziness of today, this season’s gift to be appreciated in its own fleeting way.
Be seeing you.
Why the Democrats Finally Folded
“This is how the government shutdown was always going to end. For the past 30 years, the party that has forced federal agencies to close their doors in a funding fight has never actually achieved the policy outcome it was demanding. Republicans did not successfully pressure then-President Barack Obama to defund his signature health-care law when they shut down the government in 2013. President Donald Trump, during his first term, failed to persuade Senate Democrats to authorize his border wall in 2019.” I’m still trying to figure out What Were Democrats Thinking?
There Are No Weird Blogs Anymore Cause It’s More Fruitful to Drive Them Out of Business
This is a killer article about private equity firms and how shitty they are. “Only chumps make money by selling goods or services these days; the real geniuses rely on management fees, deal fees, dividend recapitalizations, real estate deals, and the like. That allows — requires! — a private equity firm to divorce its incentives from that of its own portfolio company, making it, at best, agnostic to whether the company lives or dies. In many cases, the best decision for the firm is the one that directly undermines the company it controls. The reason there are no weird blogs anymore is that it’s more fruitful to drive them out of business.”
How to Stay Sane in a World That Rewards Insanity
Joan Westenberg explains why extremism is quite lucrative and why it’s an abject horror in the long term. Her ideas are smart, somewhat feasible, with, I would imagine, only a few takers.
What Did Men Do to Deserve This?
An interesting article in The New Yorker takes Scott Galloway and his ilk to task, discussing men and boys. “The good man of the reasonable center, in Galloway’s view, adheres to a code indistinguishable from that of the Boy Scouts: mental and physical fitness, emotional resilience, hard work, financial prudence, caring for others. Few could object to any of this. But the person it describes—a kind and conscientious sort, who aspires to make a decent living and who looks after their loved ones—seems blessedly gender-free. So why make this about manhood? Even the Boy Scouts have gone coed.” I get it, but his focus is on men and boys. There isn’t a salient selling point to include girls here.
What I’d Really do in a Holodeck
Adam Schwartz, a YouTuber who makes videos that lampoon Star Trek, gently suggests that “what happens on the holodeck stays on the holodeck.” He knows exactly how he would use it if granted sufficient privacy and confidentiality. Where is your mind going? No, that’s not what Schwartz has in mind for his holodeck time.
This Is Baseball’s Biggest Betting Scandal Since Pete Rose
Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were charged with fraud, conspiracy, and bribery stemming from an alleged scheme to rig individual pitches that led to gamblers winning hundreds of thousands of dollars. Will Leitch has the real story: “The point is: The Clase-Ortiz scandal is mammoth because it is so banal and pedestrian — millionaire athletes being so blasé about throwing bad pitches and getting their buddies paid is exactly the sort of thing that’s so terrifying about this. There was no genius involved, no real plan. They just thought they could do it and it would be fine. Looking around — at stadiums, at broadcasts, at uniforms, at the entire structure of sports — why wouldn’t they think that? Why would they think there is anything wrong with what they were doing at all?”
James Bond Actors, Definitively Ranked
Not my order, but each of these actors did bring something unique to the role.
