Tom Finneran: The Moon, The Month, The Memories…
Friday, August 15, 2014
Last Sunday’s full moon was spectacular. Second only to watching the birth of your children, the rising of the full August moon from the rim of the Atlantic Ocean has to be one of Mother Nature’s great OMG moments. It’s a staggering sight, this absolutely massive orange ball rising majestically from the deeps. Think spectacular, think special, think spiritual for it is all those things and more. It has to be one of the most forceful yet gentle reminders that we are but very small specks in God’s universe. Possessed of consciousness, intellect, and free will, we are indeed special specks, precious creatures in the eyes of the Creator, made in His image and likeness, but specks nonetheless.
August is the banking month. We bank our food. We bank our minds. We bank our plans for we know that with the return to school and the onset of Labor Day we will soon be in the midst of a busy three month sprint to the holiday season. I actually consider Labor Day to be the equivalent of New Year’s Day. It kicks off a “new season”, following the siesta of August. It’s awfully hard to get anything meaningful accomplished in August as it seems as if everyone is “away”. Thus the need for “new resolutions”, renewed focus, and a high energy push to get things done come September.
Farmers like August, not just for the farmers’ markets where they can make a buck or two. With crops maturing in the field, the fear of early-season frosts has faded, the prayers for gentle and abundant rainfall have been answered, and the visual satisfaction of a good year caresses the farmer’s eyes.
For the backyard farmers in our midst, they gain the satisfaction of the sweetest of tomatoes, abundant cukes and zucchini, and green beans galore. Backyard farmers become very popular with their neighbors too, for now is the season of sharing the harvest. I might cherish hand-picked corn and tomatoes off the vine but in reality how much can I eat in any given week? Thus the neighbors gain too…
August is the month for reading. That stack of books on the bedside table, that hand-scribbled list of titles you hope to draw from the local library, those magazines that pile up week to week, they all await your attention. And as predictable as tomorrow’s sunrise, you will soon read of the President dropping in to a local bookstore and picking up an armful of books for his “summer reading”. Every President does it and it makes for some light theater in the midst of the usual global woes.
August gives us thirty-one usually glorious days to build memories. Recent trends may have young ones returning to school and college before Labor Day, thus cutting this month of leisure a little short. Nonetheless, the memories endure. Some of those idyllic moments---hooking a fish, digging for clams, finessing a wedge and a putter for birdie---are the memories that carry us through the blizzards which lie ahead. Other memories are for the minds of the family elders. Teaching a child to swim or to climb a tree, to plant and to weed, to both hit a ball and the cutoff man---such moments surpass blizzards and polar chills. Such moments bring a twinkle to the eyes of grandparents and will surely ease the aches of old age. They are a balm, a tonic, a treasure to the elders’ last days.
So grab a book, hug a grandchild, make a beeline for the hammock and an afternoon nap… fire up the grill for burgers, dogs, and ribs with a side of sweet peppers…the days of August dwindle before our eyes. Enjoy summer’s last fling for August, the royal month, is the best of the best.
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