Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Back to Nature


     It would be difficult to find someone who doesn’t say she looks forward to the arrival of summer. We kick off our boots (real or metaphorical), shedding the difficulties of winter weather, travel, and darkness. 

Summertime is also the annual wake-up call, literally.
It begins with longer days. There is little sleeping in when the sun is snaking around shades and curtains that fail to protect us from all this 6 am cheer.

The unforgiving light of day points out that those filmy summer toppers don’t have the concealing powers of more forgiving sweatshirts and bulky sweaters. There’s no denying those extra ten pounds when it’s too hot to put any more than a tee shirt between you and the rest of the world.

As the humidity sets in, there is little chance of ignoring your hair, always so malleable in the winter, and now a dead ringer for Madeline Kahn’s in Young Frankenstein.

In the colder months we’re more put together, more polished. Just as summer reminds us of the barefoot five year old we once were, it also points out what we really are now. We are revealed in our natural state, one way or the other, which can be pretty scary.  


Oddly, this idea came to me when I saw a photo of Charize Theron in the remake of Mad Max. She was bald and her head looked as though she’d been dipped in fireplace ashes. In the interview she observed that in the movie her neck had the bulk of a linebacker’s. Granted, she’s universally known to be a beautiful woman, and so we still carry the image of her blonde hair and bombshell looks in our heads, but still – what freedom to completely discard any concern for your appearance.  


Maybe that’s why most of us love summer. We can schlep around with a glass of iced tea (original or Long Island) in our hand, wearing those shorts we’ve had for fifteen years and the oversized tee that reminds us of some great vacation from long ago.

Me, in a state of five-year-old bliss.


In the summer, more than any other time of year, we are who we are.







7 comments:

  1. You cover an interesting point. We are different in winter than summer. I'm not sure what my difference is.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's definitely summer where, hot and humid by 8:30 AM. I wore shorts out in public today, not the capris I had been wearing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, as spring morphs into summer and summer into a blast furnace, I have pants creep too.
      It's an adjustment from jeans to capris, and then by the time I'm ready to subject the world to vast reaches of my leg, I just don't care.

      Delete
  3. That is so true! I am always mad at myself for not losing 10 lbs. before summer gets here. You are adorable in that beach picture!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What we need is a five month long summer so we can finally reach out diet goals.
      When fall arrives we reach for the pumpkin pie and figure to heck with it.

      Delete
  4. Marty, love your comments about the freedom of summer. I don't even get my jeans out in the summertime! In Texas we are just heading into the hottest time, so shorts are the venue!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Linda! I can't even begin to imagine July in Texas. But then, you probably can't imagine January in Massachusetts!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for stopping by and I'd love to hear what you think.