'Summer afternoons' — do they still exist?

Darkness is creeping upon us. Sunlit mornings are arriving later and the twilight dims well before it did just several weeks ago. Mother Nature is slowly preparing us for the dark days of winter that will settle upon the land in a few months' time.

My Arizona grandchildren started school last week, with the Utahns and Californians starting this week. Most schools are in session before Labor Day, which, years ago, used to be the signal for summer to end and routine to begin. That is no longer the case. Henry James once said (and Edith Wharton quoted him in her memoir, "A Backward Glance"): "Summer afternoon — summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language."

If you agree, you had better hurry up — well actually, slow down — and take advantage of the few that are left. That is unless you happen to vacation or live in Hawaii or San Diego or some other location where the weather remains warm all year. Even in those places, however, the leisure of summer ends and routine begins once September rolls around.

Lying in a hammock watching clouds go by is nice, but it seems harder than it used to, what with cell phones that not only interrupt and find us wherever we are, but that have e-mail to boot. You can watch movies and do all kinds of things on them. And iPods, I saw a kid who had his ears pierced with the cords running through — at least they won't get stolen. What happened to just sitting and meditating or walking and thinking or just existing somewhere without being entertained?

"It is in his pleasure that a man really lives; it is from his leisure that he constructs the true fabric of self," the witty essayist Agnes Repplier once advised. If no matter where we are or what we are doing we are constantly being interrupted, how can we learn how to rest and somehow replenish our soul — to find balance?

A funny cartoon caught my eye. The background was a beach with palm trees. A man looking rather stunned dressed in a suit carried a briefcase. His wife, relaxing on the sand in a bathing suit, spoke to another woman and said, "It takes George a few days to get into a vacation."

If you need some help, Utah has the state slogan "Life Elevated," and at udot.utah.gov you can get a free copy of a map that has data about fish hatcheries, rest stops, location elevations and other useful information. Recreation doesn't need to cost much money but planning is always wise, especially if you are taking kids.

Dorothy Andersen penned a Primary song back in 1964 that is one of my favorites. "Oh, what do you do in the summertime when all the world is green? Will you fish in a stream, or lazily dream on the banks as the clouds go by? ... do you swim in a pool, to keep your self cool, or swing in a tree up high? ... do you march in parades, or drink lemonades, or count all the stars in the sky? Is that what you do? So do I."

And if you haven't gotten to any of those yet, there is still time. Beautiful words, summer afternoon.

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