Losing your Va Va Voom

When you and the summer have been rained out

Summer of 2023 has been a series of false starts and I am eager to set the reset button.

There has been a general malaise hanging imperceptibly in the air.

Together the endless rain, news of Trump indictments, rising expenses, career and home owner association nonsense all have have sucked away the excitement.

But more importantly this is the summer I lost my youth.

No, I am not talking about my chronological age.

I am talking about the pizazz of wearing a short summer skirt, the heady anticipation of going to a new entertainment venue, or a throwing one self into a side romantic misadventure.

Summer has become a season, not an experience.

Life teaches you to expect wrinkles and weight gain with maturity. But maturity also takes away the spontaneity and spark.

The motivation is just not there and the middle-age naysayers are louder or maybe I am just more likely to listen to those voices.

“In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer,” according to Albert Camus.

I would venture to say that Camus meant that there is a chance to shine again. Dare I hope?

Life is lived at the extremes, and past summers was when I put that to the test. Routines had schedules had been relaxed or abandoned.

There was the endless possibility of the next day and, if adventure did not beckon, I had the thrill of languishing in nothingness in the mid-day heat.

Crisp hot dogs, tanned bodies, sweet (salty) smells = summer.

I think when one loses summer, one loses yourself. I am almost ready to send out the search team.