Seasons Of Our Discontent

 

                                                                                  

I like where I'm living. The seasons change from time to time. It's not like living somewhere that has the same weather all year round.ⁱ And even if they may vary by a day or two some years, the variation in the seasons is only on the calendar – not affecting the change in weather that occurs.

That's reassuring. Every year the same seasons lasting the same length of time. I might like to fiddle a little with the dates on the calendar,ⁱⁱ but I know there will be a cold season, a hot one, and two in between. We'll get our weather more or less in 91 day doses.

Each season is about three months. “About,” because the way we've chosen to define them – using the equinoxes and day length as our markers – provides us with periods of this length. They're arbitrary and not really necessary. The weather would change without them.ⁱⁱⁱ But we've decided to create a system by which we recognize four seasons, and it's the same every year. And even if the weather on a particular day may not fit the mold, on the whole it is relatively predictable. Nature has its act together and we accept its dictates.

But people have an ax to grind. Money.^iv So “seasons” that are governed by human criteria seem to change from year to year. They get longer.^v For example, at one time Christmas was on December 25^th. A few days before may have been necessary to prepare, but the focus of the holiday was religious, and the 25^th itself held the greatest importance. But later, with an increasing emphasis on presents, the “Christmas Season” was advertised as soon as Thanksgiving ended, and eventually there was a day by day count of the number of shopping days until Christmas. Now we don't even wait for Thanksgiving before we start hawking presents, with the season beginning months in advance.

Other seasons have lengthened too, usually with the same motive. What was once a single day remembrance of our first president has become “Presidents'” week with big sales to mark the week. Of course it lasts more than a week, but that gives the various vendors – usually automobile companies – more time to convince you that their products are just what you need. It's a real hustle.

Sales abound, and often they're associated with holidays. Whether it's clothing for Easter, electronics for Labor Day, food for Thanksgiving, or any number of other products, no opportunity is missed to remind us that we need all of those things to celebrate the season and the holiday properly. The day when we used to celebrate our independence has become the season when we can buy grills, charcoal, and all the trimmings necessary for a barbecue. And what better time to sell flags and flowers than the weeks before Memorial Day. Capitalism has its attractions, but it's too bad that it flourishes by the sacrifice of occasions that used to have real meaning.

Even more striking has been the way we enjoy sporting events. At one time there was a baseball season, a football season, one for basketball, and one for hockey. There was some overlap, but not too much. That, sadly, has changed. Regular seasons have lengthened, playoffs have been added, and, naturally, revenues have gone way up.^vi Now that press attention to football practice games begins during the summer and the regular football season extends nearly to the baseball spring training season, there's almost no time to rest. No. There's no time at all. Basketball and hockey seasons fill in the autumn and winter, and even extend into the spring. What used to be well-defined seasons are now long economic opportunities. Like the Olympics.

Perhaps the longest season, however, is the election season. And it's the most annoying. It's said that the campaign for reelection begins on the day after Election Day. Or if it's not the campaign for reelection, it's the campaign for nomination. Politicians always seem to be fighting with each other, whether the battle is between parties on the basis of party “principles,”^vii or within parties to demonstrate someone's worthiness for nomination. So all year round we're sent campaign literature – often disguised as information for constituents and paid for by the voters through the incumbent's franking privilege. However you frame it though, the election “season” is never ending. There may be an acceleration of activities a few months before Election Day^viii but the partisanship, politicking, and posturing are always with us. Before the rise of national media and before the institution of the primaries, the election season was relatively short. Now it's interminable. And it's a real hassle.

We need some time off. We need some time between the long seasons we've produced. That can only come about if we go back to a time when seasons were shorter and more predictable; when there was a time between seasons when we could catch our breath. It was a time we were concerned about filling the leisure time that modern inventions would produce; a time when we didn't anticipate the lack of leisure time that modern society would impose on us.

But a return to the past won't happen.^ix At least not soon. So until then I propose that there be a new holiday – a nothing day. It will be a day between seasons. A day that nothing happens. Except, of course, the mammoth sale of leisure items, beginning at 4 AM.

Next episode: “ Watch Your Language” – Be careful or you may say what you really mean.

i     Even paradise can get boring.

ii    See “Klutz or Kluznik,” January 14, 2011.

iii    At least it would where I live.

iv    Or is that the whetstone? I'm having a little difficulty with the metaphor.

v     Last week (I'm writing this on July 24^th) I received a leaflet telling me of the back-to-school sales that were taking place at a nearby office supply store. The “back-to-school” season is beginning earlier and earlier every year.

vi    So have players' salaries and ticket prices. Sporting events are among our most popular entertainments and promoters are happy to pay the entertainers well for bringing in the crowds, since the audiences leave a lot of money behind not just for the tickets, but for the food and souvenirs. And by popularizing the entertainment itself, the television revenues increase.

vii    I don't believe that any more than you do. They're taking a stand that they can point to in the next election – one that they'll claim shows that they're more attuned to the wishes of the voters than their opponents.

viii   It may be years rather than months when an individual concludes that he or she is fit to be President.

ix    We've even found a way to outwit Nature and the original seasons. Now we start selling fashions many months before the time when they'll be needed. Commercialism wins again.