September 7th Essay: The Lost Innocence of Summer
Among her inspirational quotes, motivational speaker, best-selling author, and journalist Regina Brett wrote, “Summer is the annual permission slip to be lazy. To do nothing and have it count for something. To lie in the grass and count the stars. To sit on a branch and study the clouds.” How many of us took advantage of that permission slip this summer or in recent years? Or have we relegated the counting of stars and the study of clouds to the domain of children? There is value in doing nothing, both for children and, most especially, for adults. Yet we allow our insecurities and external circumstances to rob us of what is vital to our physical, psychological, and spiritual well-being. When we fail to take a firm grasp of that permission slip, the innocence of summer is lost, and with it our ability to see the beauty of the world around us, even amidst the horrors that assault our senses on an almost daily basis and confound our understanding.
My summer vacation this year was unlike any other I have had, and it was not because of the cold weather at the beach in the middle of August. I have always looked forward to my summer vacation as a chance to visit friends and catch up on news of our lives (and the latest gossip), to walk along the seashore and watch the clouds floating in the sky, and to sit on the porch at night and do nothing more than listen to the crickets and count the stars. Sadly, it was not to be like that this year. There was a sinister mist of foreboding on the horizon that obscured the clouds and vanquished the stars.
Invariably, the pleasantries that were exchanged upon first greeting friends were followed by words of dread, exasperated expressions of bewilderment, and contained anger. The topic of those conversations shared a common thread: What is happening in our country? It is no longer recognizable to us and to those who look at us from afar. The unanswered question was always the same: How did we get here so quickly? There is no simple answer that explains the reasoning (if it can be called that) why so many revered institutions have abdicated their responsibility to safeguard what we have valued from the very founding of our country. Jim Jones had Kool-Aid. What pernicious elixir is being offered now?
If we were to focus our attention on darkness, we would never see the light. If we were to continue down that path in our conversations we would be drinking an elixir of fear. Failing to study the clouds and count the stars would rob the summer of its innocence. We would lose sight of the goodness that surrounds us and gives us hope for the future.
In the midst of their exile in a foreign land, the prophet Jeremiah delivered to the Israelites a message from God, “For I know well the plans I have in mind for you…plans for your welfare and not for woe, so as to give you a future of hope….When you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me…and I will change your lot.” (Jer 29:11-14a). To a divided Christian community in Philippi, St Paul wrote, “…whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing what you have learned and received and heard and seen from me. Then the God of peace will be with you.” (Phil 4:8-9).
We are exiles in our own land, living in a nation divided by deep chasms of suspicion and enmity. History is being rewritten, and a dystopia fashioned. The signs are all around us, but if we limit our vision to those signs we will be deaf to the words of both Jeremiah and St. Paul and blind to the path that will lead us to a future of hope. Our spirits will be buoyed when we place our trust in God and do nothing more than study the clouds and count the stars. The love that God has for us will be revealed in the simple act of being alone with God and gazing at the sky. By “doing nothing” we will be strengthened in our resolve to live our lives with honor, integrity, and truthfulness, and the future will appear bright. It is a matter of faith and courage for us to firmly grasp the proffered permission slip of God and retrieve the innocence of summer. When we do that, our nation will begin to heal and our hope for the future will be restored.
As we begin a new cycle in the life of the parish, may we find ways as a community to join in joyful purpose to study the clouds and count the stars in ways that will redound to the greater glory of God and the salvation of all!
— Dennis J. Yesalonia, S.J., Pastor