Wednesday, September 23

Autumn words

It's autumn, or fall if you prefer. It arrived today at 1:21 a.m. Pacific time, and sunshine and mild temperatures continue to lure me outside to view the increasingly colorful landscape.

Today Yogi Berra died at the age of 90. (More of him in a moment.) Today Pope Francis met with the President. Today Martin Winterkorn resigned as the head of Volkswagen, the result of a massive emissions scandal. Today the 2016 election continues to dominate what we laughingly call "news" with Fox releasing a new poll that has Trump leading the Republicans, no surprise, and Hillary (44) leading Bernie (30), with unannounced Joe Biden (18).

All this should give me plenty to think about and write about but I confess I'm empty of words. Besides, I can't bear to be inside in front of a screen when I can be outside soaking up the sun and admiring my still blooming garden. In lieu of clever writing I offer you the words of others—from Mr. Berra on many subjects, and the subject of autumn by many writers.

Mr. Berra deserves to go first:

     "When you come to a fork in the road, take it."

     "If you don't know where you're going, you might wind up someplace else."

     "It gets late early out here."

     "Pair up in threes."

     "It ain't the heat, it's the humility."

     "A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore."

     "You can observe a lot by watching."

     "Never answer an anonymous letter."


On the subject of autumn, I found a wealth of beautiful prose on an unexpected site, the International Business Times, which they in turn collected from Good Reads and Quote Garden. These were my favorites:

     "Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall." —F. Scott Fitzgerald

     "Love the trees until their leaves fall off, then encourage them to try again next year."—Chad Sugg

     "Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons."—Jim Bishop

     "Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns." —George Eliot

     "Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower."—Albert Camus

     "I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house. So I have spent almost all the daylight hours in the open air." —Nathaniel Hawthorne

And on that, Mr. Hawthorne and I agree. Work can wait when the days are so beautiful. So forget the dreary news of the day. Instead, step outside, breathe deeply, and say hello to fall. You'll be glad you did.




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