What Happened to Summer

Our personal stories might differ, but most of us probably remember the summers of our youth as fun and idyllic. School was a distant memory, so we focused on important things like swimming, outdoor barbeques, or goofing off. And, even if we had summer jobs, there was still time to hang out with co-workers and friends on warm summer nights.

But something has shifted, and this season we call "summer" no longer feels the same.

I started thinking about this last week, when I set aside 10 days for a blissful vacation in Banff and Jasper National Parks perfectly timed for the peak wildflower season in the Canadian Rockies.

However, as you've already heard, a terrible fire started in Jasper National Park that devastated the park and the town of Jasper, but even before this fire started the air quality was terrible to the point of limiting views and the number of hours it felt ok to breath. And this got me wondering—how can anyone plan ahead for a vacation anymore, or take a chance on going somewhere, if conditions like this are happening year after year?!

Due to the insufferable air quality (and a family emergency), I returned home much earlier than planned, but the reality of this experience is still stewing in my mind. It reminds me that years ago I moved north from California because the southern summers had become unbearably hot and dry, and on average, I was spending two months a year with all the doors and windows in my house closed to block out suffocating forest fire smoke.

Yes, this is a story about climate change—about summer rainstorms impacting the Paris Olympics, about record-breaking temperature spikes in Antartica, about wild hurricane seasons in the eastern United States—but what I'm thinking about more than anything else today is how our experience changes if there's no longer a summer to enjoy.

What happens when "summer" becomes a season of apprehension and fear, a season of stress and discomfort rather than a gentle rebooting of our winter doldrums? I grapple with this as an adult (and even as I write these words, I'm seeing the smoke of a massive fire that is just starting to blow up in the mountains to the north of us), but what about the carefree lives of our children? What will it be like for them to not know summer as a time of relaxation and joyful memories?

No matter where you live in the world, some aspect of summer has changed. Are your days becoming unbearably hot, filled with never-ending smoke, drenched in heavy rain, or lashed by stronger and stronger storms? Does it seem like, more than ever, we stumble from one disaster to another?

In the history of our human experience, cultures have been built around the balance of seasons. Having a time to plant, and a time to harvest, creates a full cycle that completes each one of us. Not being able to trust that summer will be a time of joy, not being able to believe in summer, now feels somehow like a prison of the imagination.

These are a few of my thoughts on this topic and I'll be curious to hear what you think in the comments below.