Photograph courtesy of Nancy Allen
(my sister-in-law-in-law)
Some Autumnal Observations from Anne Lamott
"Thank God for fall. Summer nearly does me in every year: It's too hot, and the light is unforgiving, and the days go on way too long. . . .
"Then summer turned to autumn. . . .
"I talked to more than one person . . . about the snap in the air. Everyone seemed glad summer was over. Spring is sweet, the baby season; summer is the teenage season -- too much energy, too much growth and beauty and heat and late nights, none of them what they are cracked up to be. Fall is the older season, a more seasoned season. The weather surrounds you instead of beating down on you. Clouds bobble across the sky, and there are fresh winds, and misty salmon sunrises and then cool blue skies. The weather is lighter, marbled, and it makes you feel like striding again, makes you feel glad that so much works at all.
"There has been less light as the colors begin to change and the world has grown more desperate. . . .
So when the seasons change, buckle up."
217 - 18, 221
(emphasis added)
**********
"It is autumn now, following a treacherous August, and I awoke this morning to find that the leaves in my heart have started changing color, from green to yellow, persimmon, and red."
~ a bit different from her usual florals ~
Oh! I've never seen that Georgia O'Keefe painting before. I love that. I'm such an autumn leaf fan.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jan! I'm on a quest to find more of O'Keeffe's non-floral paintings!
ReplyDeleteRebecca S: I miss Indiana autumns! Central Florida does not have autumn (or winter or spring).
ReplyDeleteKitti: Come visit!
Eric S: I find it interesting that those colors are there all summer long. They're just masked by the chlorophyll. If you shoot a green woods in June with infrared film, you get a fall picture.
Kitti: Eric, maybe what you said about the chlorophyll also applies metaphorically to the above Anne Lamott quotation!
Eric S: Maybe if you're a vulcan and have green blood! :^)
Now there's an odd thought. I suppose if one's physiology was such that oxygen was delivered to the cells by bonding to copper, not iron, you might very well have green blood.
Think of how much suffering has occurred in history over color. From the War of the Roses to Selma. But I suppose if all the world was black and white, we'd argue about luminance!
Still, metaphorically, maybe love and understanding are our chlorophyll. The thing that masks our differences so we see the forest and not just the trees?
Kitti: Eric, I think you just wrote my next blog post!