Where Has All The Summer Gone?

ShortTimePassing
PeteVille


I can't believe it.

Seems like just a couple of months ago that the summer was so young as it galloped across the horizon that we were chasing.

And now it's all gone and I still owe Bev a story and images from our holiday, which are coming, I promise.

But for now I'm more occupied with tomorrow because that's when little E. starts grade 2. And she is happier than any kid can possibly be.

Bigger E., on the other hand, starts grade 8 - highschool and all that entails. She's taking it pretty well, but she's nervous beyond all get out, and asked this evening if I had any tricks for getting to sleep when I'm all wound up too.

Regardless though, no matter what, just like always, in the morning we will take our going off to school picture in front of the sunflowers we've been growing all summer long.

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I'm not sure if it's just the business I'm in or what, but I always feel like the day after Labour Day is the real time for New Year's resolutions, because for me this is the real time to start fresh again.

So, this past weekend I've been mulling it all over. What should I resolve to do?

Spend more time with the kids? Of course, that's a given....... Try to help out more around the house and be more supportive of C.'s song and dance stuff? Of course, again....... How about try to be more efficient in my work and not digress into spending hours and hours reading and figuring out how things like how the cAMP-Response-Element Binding Protein jumps on and off the promoter elemnts when cells are overlaid with extracellular matrix molecules? Well, who could possibly argue with that?

But all that stuff is self-evident.

So by the time this morning rolled around I was starting to get ancy because I hadn't come up with anything really new that would mean something.

And by this afternoon I was back at work trying to hammer out a grant that will hopefully keep me from having to think about laying off people (that's the dark side of the science world, which runs perpetually on soft-money). Luckily, though, all the usual suspects on the wireless were either running junk or re-runs today so I turned to Amy Goodman instead and listened to a full, one hour interview with Pete Seeger.

It was unbelievably entertaining. I loved what he had to say about technology - that it might just save us if it doesn't wipe us out first...... And I loved what he had to say about fighting with CBS to get his anti-war songs on the Smothers Brothers TV show in 1968.....and I loved what he had to say about his roll in standing up to Joseph McCarthy in the '50's......and I loved hearing about what really happened at the Newport Folk festival when Dylan went electric in 1965....And I loved hearing about how he discovered 'We Shall Overcome' and came to write 'Where have all the Flowers Gone?' (and the back story of almost losing the copyright to the Kingston Trio).....And I loved hearing him talk about how he developed his talk-ahead-to-tell the-verse sing-a-long style that Arlo loved so much and how it has come to mean so much more as his own singing voice fades....And I loved hearing him describe how, with age 90 fast approaching he still goes skiing because he's just fine from the ears down.....And always it seemed to come back to the Weavers and Woodie, even when he wasn't saying it explicitly.....

But mostly I loved to hear him speak about how we will always win as long as we keep trying.

So, when he said the following, I paid attention:

"I honestly believe that the future is going to be millions of little things saving us. I imagine a big seesaw, and at one end of this seesaw is on the ground with a basket half-full of big rocks in it. The other end of the seesaw is up in the air. It's got a basket one-quarter full of sand. And some of us got teaspoons, and we're trying to fill up sand.

A lot of people are laughing at us, and they say, "Ah, people like you have been trying to do that for thousands of years, and it's leaking out as fast as you're putting it in." But we're saying, "We're getting more people with teaspoons all the time." And we think, "One of these years, you'll see that whole seesaw go zooop in the other direction." And people will say, "Gee, how did it happen so suddenly?"


So now, if you'll excuse me, I've gotta go find me some spoons.


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Almost forgot: The Goodman/Seeger interview can be found here.


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