Today’s scholarly essay on SoBros Network is derived from a question I received last week for the SoBros Mailbag. Longtime supporter Grizzler chimed in with an interesting question: “Is there anything good about August? No football (in season), no holidays, hot af. I was born in August and the older I get the more I think it’s a bottom tier month.” I answered Grizzler, albeit in the brief form that is typical of the SoBros Mailbag. But, to be frank, I haven’t stopped thinking about my answer to that question. Why? Because over time, my appreciation for August has grown exponentially. Now, August has actually become one of my favorite months of the year. Allow me to explain in greater detail.
I just turned 38 years old. I don’t know if this is typical of everyone, but it feels like just last year, I was 25 with the world at my fingertips. I turned 30, and then the next year, I turned 38. That’s how it feels. Mentally, I’ve been struggling to process the passing of time for years now. Hell, it’s part of what drove me to writing poetry. I absolutely hate it when I catch myself wondering where all the time went. I hate it when I get to the end of a season and realize it’s passed before I’ve done all I wanted to do. So, in response to that, my brain started looking ahead more often. And, I’m a planner on top of everything else. I like to have my to-do list, and I like to prepare myself in a way that allows me to truly appreciate and live in the moment. I know this is a weird sentiment, but I picked up on it when I began to realize that I enjoy Thanksgiving more than Christmas. After Christmas, there’s just this weird period of time when I’m in a funk because the holidays are over. But, at Thanksgiving, I still have the warm holiday traditions of December to look forward to.
I know my brain is wired oddly, so bear with me. But, if I can savor the moment more and relish the hopeful anticipation of the future in the present, I feel a little more at ease about the inevitable passing of time. There’s nothing we can do to stop it, but at least maybe I can slow it down by being aware of it and planning ahead. So, all of that is to say that the fall is my favorite time of the year. After employing this strategy for several years, I began to notice that I’d get giddy every August! It meant that not a moment of fall had passed, and every bit of it was still to come. I’d look out the window, daydreaming about cooler days, football, and Oktoberfest beers. Every morning, I’d go to my window to see if the leaves were just a little bit more yellow. I enjoyed that. I might even start burning an early fall candle from Yankee Candle – stuff like Autumn Woods, Autumn Leaves, Ciderhouse, or Woodland Road Trip. And, in doing that, I realized that I felt good and in the moment by the time September actually rolled around.
But, besides that, there are more literal things that I enjoy about August. For one, the Tennessee heat has likely killed my grass dead, so I don’t have to mow as often as I did earlier. WWE’s SummerSlam usually takes place in August and serves as a bit of a reset on the WWE calendar. Then, there’s the Wilson County Fair, which to me, unofficially marks the sunset of summer (per house rules, Labor Day is the official end of summer, but when you see that ferris wheel up in Lebanon, you know it’s about that time). While I’d say that it’s scorching hot nine out of every 10 years, it feels like there’s that one year every so often that offers our first glimpse of cooler weather. I can remember a few years ago going to the county fair with my wife when we both thought we needed hoodies walking out of that place.
There’s also just an air of easiness about August that naturally comes with the end of things. By this point in the year, most of our summertime activities…our day trips, our concerts, our vacations, holidays…all that…are over with. It’s so hot here in Tennessee that no one seems eager to leave the air conditioning of their homes. Plus, around here, school’s starting back up. It adds up to mean stores are a little quieter and restaurants are a little less packed. I dig that. I circle back to the anticipation…to the acknowledgment of time passing…to point out that August sits like a restful nap on the calendar. It gives us a peaceful moment to look back on the fun of the summer, and it gives us an exciting moment to look ahead to the fun of autumn.
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network, and a Dogs Playing Poker on velvet connoisseur. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD, #BeBetter, and ‘Minds right, asses tight.’ “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Nashville, Yankee Candle, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley.
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