Change and differences bring opportunities

SOCIAL STUDIES - Published Monday September 1st, 2008

I realize that Labour Day symbolizes a lot of things, but if we are honest, the end of summer weighs heaviest on our minds.

In deciding to create a holiday to honour men and women who work to keep our country running, the powers that be could not have chosen a more ironic time of year. Those last golden rays of sunshine are easy to dismiss as the nights turn frosty cold. Leisure gives way to hardship as the seasons change.

I think most of us feel this way because of how closely we are tied to the educational system.

For a minimum of 13 years we follow an artificial rhythm of working from September to June and playing for July and August. Some of us carry this through to university. Most of us feel it again as our own children enter into the same system.

Even without school the seasons matter when you live in a Northern climate like we do. Summer is so short and winter so harsh that you really try to take advantage of it.

Everyone flees the normal life heading for the cottage, the lake, the relations, vacations, or just down to Centennial Park. There are festivals and fairs galore. Barbecues and lobster boils last deep into the night.

It is over.

Did I already say that? Sorry. I guess I am just reeling with my own pain.

And why not feel a sense of loss? Whenever things change in our lives it means letting go of something we valued, something that made us who we are. As the seasons change we inevitably have to put things back on the shelf and change how we dress, how we feel, who we are.

There is a deeper metaphor at work in all of this; but let me, for a moment, imagine an enemy to rail against. The enemy is the modern conception that we should not feel pain.

Seasonal Affective Disorder, or aptly enough, SAD; is actually a psychological ailment that says it is somehow unnatural to feel blue when it is raining. There is another one; Social Anxiety Disorder, or, curiously, SAD; where we are told it is unnatural to be shy.

It is almost as if pharmaceutical corporate executives are sitting in their offices and inventing ways to get us to think life is not normal.

The Earth rotates around the Sun. It has for millions of years. You cannot get much more normal than that. So there are seasons. It is hot and it is cold. It has been that way for tens of thousands of years. Again, this is pretty normal.

And those shy people? I notice that most of the ones I knew about in High School would go home and sit in front of their television, or play Colecovision, or do calculus. They are not nearly so shy now as they drive home to their mansions in the Lexus. Can you imagine where the computer industry would be if we had medicated everyone who wanted to play video games instead of go to the prom?

People have different interests. I hate hockey. Should I be medicated as "un-Canadian"?

Of course, there are also those people who are affected more deeply than most. There are also times when things affect us more deeply; the first Christmas after a loss for example. And those are the times when we really do need help -- professional and pharmaceutical help.

It is also as natural for us to go through seasonal changes as it is for all of us to have moments of shyness. It is natural that each stage of our life, from baby right through to senior, causes us to be fearful, sad, apprehensive, and overjoyed.

Sometimes the help we need is simpler; a day off, a weekend away with a loved one, or a party. What we do not need is people telling us it is unnatural to feel that way.

It bothers me to no end that there seems to be a worldwide movement to say that stable and uniform is the only right way to be.

Van Gogh produced amazing art, arguably because he was certifiable. Mozart seems to have had real issues. Mark Twain was an ornery old cuss. Ghandi refused to play by the rules. The Dalai Lama likewise does not always seem to be the way we expect.

It is the differences of this world that make it a beautiful thing. It is the fact that there is swimming in the sunshine and skiing in the snow that makes us the type of adaptable, hard working and friendly people we are.

Our youth make our middle years which in turn make our older years what they are as well.

The loss of a girlfriend, a best friend, a parent or a pet helps make our appreciation of life that much better.

The shyness that kept me from having too many girlfriends in those early school days helped me learn about myself enough to become pretty open and interactive.

The summer has given me new energy to realize that each year brings new changes and opportunities.

I wish I was freer of the influences around me that keep me feeling like I should want to be young, and strong, and rich, and happy at every moment of my life. It is simply not possible. And the sooner we come to terms with that the more content we can be with who we have become.

Bring on the fall.