It's been a good summer, but it's impossible to fit in everything that you'd like to do before the students come back to the University and the days get short and cold.
This morning, I was having a bad case of wanderlust. I'm guessing it was mostly primed by the fact that we had a long list of chores we were responsible for, and there were other things I'd rather be up to.
Such as reading by a pool.
Or laying out under a wide sky full of stars.
But that's life. Instead, we planted a few perennials and a handful of annuals (a nice little sprinkling of "fall color"), found ourselves neck deep in trimmed branches, and covered in spiderwebs as we cleaned out our shed. The part of me that thinks every weekend should be a vacation is a little disappointed that's how we spent our days off, but, the results are worth it. Also, when your body is tired, scraped, and a little sunburned, it's hard to feel like the road is calling. A spot on the couch with a cuddly kitty and a cold drink seems plenty good.
We went to see Rear Window on Thursday. I'm still a little baffled that I've never seen it before. What a great movie. Friday night, we went to see the new Batman movie. The contrast between them couldn't be larger. I enjoyed Batman enough, but to see it in such close proximity with a movie that has mastered the art of suspense, and executes it so deftly - it just doesn't quite hold up.
More than anything, Rear Window made me think about how we structure our lives and how we fill our time. Recently, I've been sensitive to articles and clips about the amount of screen time or internet, or noise we consume without even realizing it. Right now, I'm sitting in a quiet house, the crickets are singing outside, and everything is dark on the other side of the windows. No TV, no radio, no videos playing on the internet. Just the sound of the night and the fans bringing in the cool night air. It's really nice.
It's hard not to have other things playing or other sounds going. We want the TV, music, or the radio to keep us company. I take a really singular pleasure in turning on the BBC World Service and letting the radio be my background for evening chores. But it's also nice not to. I think it's easy to forget that. It's hard to carve out a little space where it's just quiet. Sometimes Charlie will walk into the room where I'm just sitting, and he'll ask me if everything is OK. "I'm just enjoying being still." It's hard to remember how to do that sometimes, but it's so refreshing and recharging when we can just let that happen. Turn our brains off. Sit in a quiet room. Pay attention to the things around us.
It's funny that a movie like Rear Window made me think about that - it's all about watching something, right? I'm not sure that movie would have happened in the world we live in today. We're so tied in to watching and consuming, and paying attention to our own little online lives - would we even notice what our neighbors look like? Would we have nicknames for people we haven't even met? There's something decidedly human about that; I think we'd do ourselves well not to forget it in favor of our online or onscreen pursuits.
Anyhow, the crickets outside the window tonight are nice.
