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Crowson: Fall... the Humble Comma

I am an unabashed lover of autumn. When the light takes on a slight golden cast as it filters through fading leaves, I get a little happier. Don’t get me wrong – I like summer. But it’s just so dang emphatic. 

With a few exceptions, summer days proclaim their season unequivocally. Summer days say, “It’s hot time!” And then they start shimmying around like James Brown when he would “Get on the Good Foot!”

But fall taps you on the shoulder and says, “Um, excuse me, but I was just considering a slight cool down.” Then it eases into a Perry Como song, maybe “Catch a Falling Star.”

If summer was an exclamation point, fall is more like the humble comma. (Or a “Como.”)

It’s wonderful how fall’s gentle change reminds us that everything is cyclical. Fall is there to tell us no matter how hot things get, change will come and the earth’s axis will tilt. Sure, it won’t be long before we’re all complaining about the bitter cold, but meanwhile there’s a season of transition about to unfold in all its glory.

William Wordsworth said it this way:

     “What pensive beauty autumn shows,
                  Before she hears the sound
         Of winter rushing in, to close
                  The emblematic round!”

Here’s to James Brown… and to Perry Como too!

Richard Crowson is not only a editorial commentator for KMUW. He's also a cartoonist, an artist and a banjo player.