Fall Up

For those of you who don't realize it, fall is officially here. Yesterday (Sunday) marked the official end of summer and the beginning of fall. For those taking notes at home, the proper term for this is the autumnal equinox. This day always falls between September 20th and 23rd and it marks a time when the day is equally divided into lightness and darkness. There's some fun trivia for you to throw around at a party, don't thank me. Anyway, I was disheartened to learn that summer was officially over because I absolutely love summer. I know a lot of people do, but it's damn close to a religious experience for me, I mean I really love it. After the initial shock I began to think about fall and why I dread it so much, because I do. It occurred to me that the only reason I dislike fall is that it's the opening act for winter. As one might deduce, being a summer lover means I'm also a winter hater.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I actually like fall a lot, as long as I don't think about it as the winter harbinger. Being a young guy, fall still makes me think of back to school. I have to admit that, even though I didn't really enjoy school, there was always a sliver of excitement in the misery pie that meant classes were starting again. New clothes, new year, new possibilities. The formative years spent in school are chaotic and confusing, and it always seemed like returning from summer vacation each year brought an entirely new student body into the classrooms. You change quick at a young age and sometimes a few months was all it would take for an ugly duckling to mature into a really hot chick. Of course after a few weeks you realize that people rarely change, not dramatically at least. That's when the death of excitement is official and the tyranny of normality takes over. I think that's what fall is, in a small way. If spring is the season of rebirth then fall is surely the season of death. Some might argue that winter is truly the season of death but it's really just the funeral. During the fall plants wither and die, the days grow shorter and darker and all the plans you had for the summer are slowly abandoned, left to rot in the dark recesses of garages across America. And life seems to slow down. Even though life is kind of crazy with kids going back to school and holidays on the horizon, to me the heartbeat of the world has always appeared to decelerate during autumn. Weather cools down and you pack away the shorts and t-shirts in favor of jackets and sweaters you haven't seen in 5 months. Less and less time is spent outside and before you know it you have to start your car before you leave in the morning, just to warm it up for the trip.

What I really like about fall is the vision in my mind of the season, the way it fills my head with a pleasant nostalgia. I've already mentioned going back to school but it also makes me think of watching high school sports in the bleachers with a group of friends and a blanket. Of going apple picking with my family and drinking warm cider with fresh apple donuts. I think of chopping wood outside with my father, doing my best to keep up as my cheeks burn a rosy red. I don't know why, but I've always thought of fall as pie season. I love pie and in the fall there are always more varieties to choose from than any other time of the year, provided my mom feels like baking. If she doesn't that's fine because fall is also football season and that means junk food with the guys in front of a television doing nothing but enjoying the most popular sport in America. I also think of fairs and festivals and eating maple cotton candy. I remember mountain biking through the mud and returning home exhausted to cups of hot chocolate. Fall is when I start renting movies instead of going to theaters to see them, hopefully cuddled under a blanket next to an attractive girl. And to me, the culmination of fall is Thanksgiving. The parade, the meal, the family. It's the last bit of that lazy, calm, friendly season I see in my head, before people go Christmas crazy and serious snow starts to fall. I know this has been a bit touchy-feely, maybe even a bit trite, but that's what fall does to me. I can't help myself, my picture of fall was painted by Norman Rockwell using hackneyed Americana as a canvas. For some reason I see in fall a vivid representation of what's right with our country. Not when I look out my window or wake up in the morning, but in my vision of what fall represents for me. It sounds crazy for a season to evoke such feelings but it is what it is. I hope your fall lives up to the one in my head. Happy autumn.