If you came here looking for commentary on the election taking place to the south of us, you’re in the wrong place. I quit following U.S. elections years ago: they drove me crazy and I couldn’t do a thing about them.
Over the years I’ve come to realize that many things drive me crazy. I can add another one to my List nearly every day. With experience, I think I’ve learned to cut loose the ones I have no control over, and to concentrate my efforts on the ones that I can change - or at least, think I can.
And I find Canadian politics much more entertaining. And depressing. At least it’s easier to follow.
But what I was getting ready to comment on was the change in the season. Read a political metaphor into that if you like, but I was referring to was how the long, gray days with their increasingly colder temperatures herald the start of the “community season”.
Have you noticed how community activities increase as Autumn makes way for Winter?
During the Spring and Summer, everyone does their own thing. Community events happen during those seasons, but mostly everyone is in vacation-mode, or yardwork-mode. Activities that are personal or for the immediate family.
When the weather turns cold, the community turns to each other for company. What made me think of it, besides years of observing it everywhere I’ve lived, was just thinking of all of the “community” events that are coming up - plays, concerts, suppers, parades, fundraisers, etc.
Yeah, we have all of those throughout the year, but my calendar will give you a visual image of how they occur more frequently at this time of the year. By comparison, May to September is dead!
Maybe it harks back to the time when the village huddled around a single fire in the great house... if that ever happened - but those are the stories that keep us entertained while building community.
Even if it’s just a well-heated gymnasium these days, we still enjoy spending the cold evenings with friends and neighbours.
Wendy Coomber is the editor of the Ashcroft-Cache Creek Journal