Summer

August has arrived, with a hot afternoon that would make swimming the wisest of pasttimes, although I-like most people-have been too busy and ingrained in my habits to swim. Instead, I have been working around the office moving old medical charts and trying to write the book in between my usual walk. Actually, I enjoy heat more than cold, and find something animalistic about dripping with sweat on a hot afternoon. It makes me feel alive and potent and better able to touch the primal instincts...in fact, it doesn't get any more Real than defecating out of doors while perspiring heavily as the blowflies come to feed. Such things strip away all the pretensions I have about being 'above' the so called animals- deeply personal and humbling. People sometimes complain of the hot or the cold after walking a short distance from their cars to a building, yet if they allowed themselves sufficient time to acclimate to the outdoors they might find it to be not so hot or cold as they first suspected. Thoreau used to say of his woodpile that it warmed him twice-once to cut the logs and again to burn them- so maybe we should occasionally raise or lower our inner thermostats rather than waste oil. I'm not sure at what age we lose our wisdom and sit in air conditioning rather than cool our feet in a pool or stream, but if resources are becoming as scarce as the scientists tell us, and the atmosphere really is warming, then those alternatives from our past are still there to enjoy.