Will we continue the circle game?

One of my favorite songs is The Circle Game by Joni Mitchell, with its refrain of “And the seasons, they go round and round....”  Today the first week of August has passed. Maple leaves in front of the house have turned yellow and fallen (drought, heat stress, thunderstorms). Chili season has returned, the first pot of the new season is now simmering on the stove. There are no 90℉ high temperatures in the extended weather forecast. Back-to-school sales are being advertised.

whitetail deer doe under pear tree

Photo by J. Harrington

Yesterday, or maybe the day before, a doe whitetail deer visited the yard in her reddish-tan summer coat to see if any pears had fallen under the tree. Something really spooked her because, shortly after arriving, she bolted to the west and into the woods. It probably will be several weeks or more before her coat begins to show the gray tones of winter colors.

Although it’s about six weeks until astronomical autumn, (September 22), it’s only a little more than three weeks until meteorological autumn (September 1). During the past several years I’ve become more and more aware that our calendar, with it’s hard cutoff dates for seasons, fails to properly inform us of the gradual transitions that are constantly occurring among those seasons. For example, there’s a season for local field corn that actually begins when the seeds are planted (late spring - early summer) and continues through leaf development, tasseling, silk to eventual maturity and harvest (late summer - early autumn).

Tomorrow we’ll learn the latest assessment of how badly we’re disrupting such seasonal progressions, the ones we’ve come to rely on as normal, when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issues its newest report. Between then and November 2022, it would be wise for all of US to become single issue voters. The single issue? Treating climate breakdown like the crisis it actually is. So far, both the Democrats and the Republicans are failing US on that front. But, we can ALL DO OUR BEST TO ADAPT AND BUILD A BETTER FUTURE. Also, we all need to push world leaders to respond aggressively at the upcoming COP 26 if we want to continue playing

The Circle Game

by Joni Mitchell

Yesterday a child came out to wonder
Caught a dragonfly inside a jar 
Fearful when the sky was full of thunder 
And tearful at the falling of a star 

Then the child moved ten times round the seasons
Skated over ten clear frozen streams 
Words like when you're older must appease him 
And promises of someday make his dreams

And the seasons they go round and round 
And the painted ponies go up and down 
We're captive on the carousel of time 
We can't return we can only look 
Behind from where we came 
And go round and round and round 
In the circle game

Sixteen springs and sixteen summers gone now 
Cartwheels turn to car wheels thru the town 
And they tell him take your time it won't be long now
Till you drag your feet to slow the circles down 

And the seasons they go round and round 
And the painted ponies go up and down 
We're captive on the carousel of time 
We can't return we can only look 
Behind from where we came 
And go round and round and round 
In the circle game

So the years spin by and now the boy is twenty 
Though his dreams have lost some grandeur coming true
There'll be new dreams maybe better dreams and plenty
Before the last revolving year is through

And the seasons they go round and round 
And the painted ponies go up and down 
We're captive on the carousel of time 
We can't return we can only look 
Behind from where we came 
And go round and round and round 
In the circle game

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