By Jack Canfora

I’ll start with a confession. I don’t really know if this is summer’s last hurrah. I haven’t heard it hurrah at all so far, at least I think I haven’t, but in another confession, I’ve never really heard anyone use hurrah in an unironic fashion, and basing what it would sound like on a snarky derision of it doesn’t feel fair. At a guess, I’d assume it probably sounds like, “Hurrah!” I’ve never used the word myself; I simply haven’t lived that kind that kind of life. Having gotten that out of the way, as we say goodbye to the summer of 2021, here’s a list of some of the things I’ve discovered during this (for me, anyway) far too short a season.

• – Our climate is F*$%#d up. No further study is needed
• – My resolution to start meditating has gone thus far unresolved. But there’s always the fall
• – I realized how great it was to walk around mask free
• – I’ve learned the sharp sting of tasting that masklessness only to wearing one again. Because even my narcissism doesn’t run that deep.
• – The verb “Boris-Noris” was used in the 19th Century to mean to go on blindly, without any regard to risk or decency.
• – That my energies and time devoted to bringing this phrase back into our vernacular could likely have been more productively spent.
• – The stark realization that I’ve reached the age that, if I haven’t acquired a cool, snappy nickname already, I’m probably never going to.
• – That the puppy I adopted in May will likely be roughly the size of a Mini Cooper before this month is out.
• – That if you’re not feeling ok inside, no amount how great it is outside won’t help. Sometimes, it even makes it worse.
• – That humidity and I will simply have to agree to disagree
• – I didn’t go swimming enough.
• – Several excellent books
• – As jaded as I pretend to be about the Olympics, I become very emotionally invested in sports I normally wouldn’t watch if I given a generous grant to do so.
• – America remans steadfastly dedicated to its toxic tribalism.
• – That we all use the word “toxic” too much.
• – That we are as far away from 1980 as 1939 was. I’ll give you a minute to get yourself together.
• – That I’ve gotten slightly better at trying to appreciate, or at least sit in, the moment. But I still largely suck at it.
• – That no one’s ever been persuaded of anything by anyone other themselves.
• – That there’s a staggering beauty to the knowledge of how little of the world I’ll ever know.
• – That hope is necessary, even if it sometimes feels ruthless.
• – That both of children, in every measurable way except Beatles trivia, are better people than I am.
• – That last one was a cheat. I knew it already, but the understanding grew deeper.
• – That no matter how much I know it’s coming, the darkness inching in a bit earlier every night gives me a gentle kind of sadness.
• – That I still, and probably always will, miss Alex Trebek
• – That when compiling lists, I eventually hit a wall.

.I hope you’re making the most of things as the days grow shorter, or longer if you’re a Southern Hemisphere dweller.

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