The harvest is past, the summer is ended as Jeremiah said. Well, up to a point here in London. But there are some things we can enjoy even after the harvest, or without one. And in autumn we don’t have to feel that we’re an absolute failure if we’re not having an especially good time, the way you do if you’re alone at Christmas or working on New Year’s Eve.
Autumn is actually the start of a new year for anyone mixed up with education. It’s the start, not the end. So maybe it should also be a time for resolutions. Why don’t we, too, determine that this time we will – well, work harder? Change our main subject or preoccupation. One of my resolutions this year would be to tell people to stop their endless cheering up.
But surely, you’ll say, people cheering us up is good, not bad? Well yes, up to a point, but… who wants to be reminded of their troubles all the time? Treated as if they can’t cope? That’s the problem: sometimes in the course of helping – explaining it, making it easier to use, or instituting rules – one is just emphasising it. You need help to cross the road, or someone has to explain the machine, or translate the conversation or remind you of all the things you may intend to do – but you may feel that by labelling you as someone who needs things they’ve actually made it worse.
What we need to do is make autumn the time when we decide how much help we’ll accept, what we can put up with, how we intend to put some things first and stop anyone bullying us into anything we really don’t want to do, or try to stop us from doing something we do. That way I can leave New Year for just having a good time.
What do you think? Have your say below
