Christmas in July

It's a hot July day, one of the hottest days of the year. I slip on some sandals to pad down the blistering driveway and retrieve the day’s mail. What do I find amidst the usual real estate solicitations and utility bills? The Neiman-Marcus Christmas catalog!

Is it just me, or has time seemed to have just blurred into one big "whoosh" that’s impossible to keep up with?

Retailers have followed their own calendars for decades. The problem is that since we’re subject to their timing and publicity efforts, we get sucked into this warped reality. We’re supposed to shop for bathing suits when it’s pouring down rain, and buy holiday gifts during a heat wave. We must stock up on back-to-school supplies now, because if we wait until we need them, in September, the backpacks and binders will all be gone to make way for the Valentine’s displays.

Movie studios have gotten into the game as well. While we’re relaxing at the theatre, they’re showing us previews of movies they’ve got coming out six months to a year from today! What’s the strategy here? Bring your Filofax and pencil it in, say, 47 Saturdays from now?

And now, my own children have been putting the clock into some kind of fast-forward mode. It couldn’t have been that long ago that I was taking them to "Mommy and Me" classes. I thought we just went shopping for shoes, and now they’re too small already? Somehow my little guys went from Baby Gap to the skateboard stores and I hardly had a chance to clean out their drawers!

What’s happening with this world? Before, I would roll my eyes when mate
ity mail-order offers came in the mail. Now I’m on some list that has me pegged as a potential AARP member. This can’t be! I’m not ready to retire… I’m not even ready for the weekend.

Never have we been more keenly aware of the passage of time. There are clocks in our kitchen appliances, and digitized time-keepers built into our cell phones, pagers and computers. We can’t drive more than a few miles without seeing some kind of clock prominently displayed on the top of a building. Yet we still need excuses for being late because we can’t seem to keep up with it all.

One morning, as I was driving my son Freddy to school, I started getting nervous when the disc jockey said, "It’s 7-0-2," and that didn’t jive with either my watch or the clock on the dashboard. And then my son calmly explained to me that the DJ was announcing the next musical group, and not the time.

The build-up to holidays and major events like the Olympics, the election, or the Super Bowl, is so monumental that we’re turning into "future-livers." That is, we are more often looking forward in time, than enjoying the time that is ours, right here and right now. So, while we’re planning for Christmas in July, we’re missing the glory of the summer sun. While we’re dashing from place to place to fit everything into our busy schedules, we’re missing out on the beauty and peace of the present moment.

Enough is enough! Before our lives spin entirely out of control, I have a proposal. Since we can’t get Superman to fly around the planet and reverse time, we need to take matters into our own hands. Let’s live in the NOW, and appreciate the moment we’re in.

Our agendas could consist of soaking up every precious minute that we have left of our summer. We may schedule in time for spontaneity and do-nothingness. Fresh-squeezed lemonade is to be savored in the shade. Popsicles are to be appreciated poolside. In present-moment awareness, somehow all is right with the world, and time stands still. And in the stillness of our mind, we can take snapshots of this time, and fill our memory banks with valuable impressions that can be recalled whenever we need them.

Before we know it, school will be starting, and pumpkins will emerge in giant bins at every grocery store. But just for today, let’s think about today, and enjoy what a wonderful summer day it truly is!