Dog Days of Summer
The Romans first coined the term Dog Days after Sirius, the Dog Star. Long ago, during the hottest, most sultry days of summer, the Dog Star rose at the same time as the sun (no longer true, due to the precession of the equinoxes).
Where I grew up, the term also brought to mind the image of pets that, during this period of summer, typically tolerated the midday hours by stretching out on a cool slab of concrete porch in the shade, if it could be had. The look on such a dog’s face was of utter boredom, with its big slobbery hound lips leaving wet Rorschach splotches on the concrete where said dog collapsed for its heat-of-the-day nap. And what else can a dog do but park for a nap during such baked days?
And so it goes the past couple of weeks here. I’m really feeling, and relishing, the dog days of summer. I’m relishing the sweltering vapidness because I know it’s human nature to fear change, and the dog days of early August seem to be the most invariant.
Yeah, I saw that Bush signed a law expanding eavesdropping so now a bunch of strange government spies can listen to our fiber optic communications in addition to all the electronic ones they filter through Echelon.
And, yes, I’m aware that certain candidates that have been approved by the establishment are criticising other candidates for accepting money from lobbyists while they themselves receive rewards from corporations and AIPAC, but lie about it and hide it better.
And, yes, I’m aware that the FBI still maintains there is no hard evidence linking bin Laden to 9/11, and that, in all probability it appears that bin Laden died in December 2001.
But, sitting here in Huntsville, Alabama, smack dab in the middle of a D4 drought — the most severe category of drought — while ExxonMobile pays forty policy groups to undermine the scientific consensus about the human influence on global warming, even these news items can’t seem to break the stagnating doldrums of my summer. And to some extent, I appreciate that calm, because I fear one day soon I will wish I had appreciated it more when I had the chance.
And yet, the kids went back to school last week, and got real live homework this week, and the windows on the house need a good caulking before winter, and even in this drought, there’s yard work that needs to be done…again. And, surprisingly, a few unregulated candidates survived the dog days of summer and they’re still refusing to be silenced by the corporate machine. And the lulled public is, perhaps, again primed for another false flag attack of epic proportions, and more change, and more change, and more change.
And so, I sense the world awakening, for better or worse, a hint of change already in the air, and the dog days of summer drawing to a close.
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