Happy Summer

Today is the official first day of summer. Also called midsummer, as in "A Midsummer Night's Dream". It is the longest day of the year, which seems odd, since the days just seem to fly in the summer, and the winter solstice which is the shortest day of the year, seems to drag on forever.

The weather today, either is or is not conducive to the sense of magic that Shakespeare put into his play. It is cloudy here in Boston and the temperatures are only suppose to make it into the low 70's. But they are threatening thunderstorms, and the roses are still in bloom, late spring flowers are still in evidence and the world is still seeming young and fresh.

By August, the city will seem dusty and tired. All of the fresh green of spring will have somehow lost its vibrancy and the slow pace of high summer will have effected both the appearance and mood of the city.

For now it is almost like a mood of anticipation. A red-tailed hawk circles over the turnpike and then settles on the red tile roof of the old Hotel Somerset on Charlesgate. The scent of the lime trees in bloom soften the air, harsh with the exhaust fumes of the morning commuters. The pace has slowed. The students gone for the summer in this college town, people are more leisurely, the chores and cares of the day can wait a bit for attention.

Men in t-shirts and tanks call out for my attention, though summer is a time for love, not spring. The mating dance is done. Spring, that lusty and burgeoning season has exhausted itself and now like a perfectly ripe peach, summer waits to drop in our lap. Now is the time for long days, picnics, the beach, or seeking the shelter of cool shade to refresh from meandering in the sun. Short nights spent dancing, going here and there for an evenings entertainment or simply finding a congenial spot to enjoy the cool of th evening air, building a cache of memories to warm the long winter nights.

But today is grey. I hope we do get the thunderstorms they are promising. Sturm und Drang. Some proper drama for the day. Oberon and Titania in conflict, then a clearing sky, the sun, reunion, the happy lovers united at last. I do not know what the day will bring, but reading this over, I have put on my donkeys ears. I am looking at the world differently, and who knows what wonders this day and the newly minted summer will bring.