October 2025, Anyway…

I haven't read enough Ernest Hemingway. I absolutely loved Old Man and the Sea but that is all I have sampled of the famed and illustrious author. I bring it up because I have been thinking a lot about a concept that was supposedly well illustrated in his story The Sun Also Rises. This concept, simply stated, is “gradually, then suddenly”. In the story it is about people going bankrupt, but I think it seems to be how just about everything happens, good or bad. Years may pass where it seems little is happening; the doldrums of day to day life may grind upon our nerves as we wait for things to change. But at some point the season changes, without warning, into one of frantic upheaval.
One may presume that these seasons of calm and craze are simply a matter of random chance, and that while some of us are rushing to get a torrent of duties completed, others are sitting idle and bored. My observation is that this is not the case. When you feel upheaval, it is not you alone. We at the Dispatch are attuned to how busy everything is from month to month and week to week. It is not an even contour of activity, but instead fits and starts of social events all happening. It would seem when our family is most likely to have things already filling our time, that is when much of the cool stuff is occurring. When things are busy for us, they are busy for everyone around us. It's almost as though a weather front has swept through but instead of bringing rain, it has poured activity upon the town. I suppose this is precisely what the phrase “when it rains, it pours” is saying as well.

The consolation is the usual; “This, too, shall pass.” (not Hemingway, but an adage of Persian origin, I recently learned.) If you are waiting anxiously for something to happen, worry not. It will come in a downpour. If you have had enough of the tumult of obligations, a period of respite is likely around the corner. Or at least I hope it is. Man, do I hope it is. I could use a break.