My Tangible, Triumphant Summer

- and the stalking tyranny of the internet

(For my podcast of my essay, either click on the embedded file below - or the Spotify link) https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/gcZQz5KSJLb

With apologies to my readers in Australia and South America, it is summer in the Northern hemisphere now - yes, that same summer when the skies sing with the swallow’s song and the balmy breezes blow warm upon the brow. The sweltering earth and grass still call out for human feet to walk, run, roll or make love on them and the water’s touch upon your toes is tingling cool or warm, not cold.

And yet, I must admit that I have sometimes felt like Gulliver in Jonathan Swift’s novel, who was tied down by the innumerable strings that kept him immobilized and prostrate upon the ground. The many strings and restraints of the internet have competed with the summer at every turn and have tried their best to keep me tied to their tunnel vision world of social media, emails, texting, news cycles and news about news!

For those of us fortunate to forget or intentionally leave our phones and laptops behind when we go off on a summer holiday (I have done this a few times!), there is no doubt that time after time, every time, we find upon our return that we have missed absolutely nothing at all during the time we were away! One reason for this strange phenomenon of course, is that in the case of 90% or more of the supposedly (in our estimation) terribly important (or just terrible) things we read about or watch on X feeds, news websites, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube etc - there is absolutely nothing we can do to change or influence what we watch or read about! They do capture our attention, even devotion, no doubt - but we have never been able to influence them! So why do we pay so much attention to them?

Like the prostitute that the doctor (Dr. Carey) cannot let go in Somerset Maugham’s desperately tragic novel, “Of Human Bondage,” the internet lays its icy hands of death upon us, dragging us down, even though we realize that we risk being mastered by a force that we may not be able to control. Those of us still able to control this force, master it and make it serve, must count ourselves very fortunate indeed - and that only by the Grace of God.

It cannot be good for human beings to be exposed constantly to the buzz, ring, vibration, notifications, oscillations, white light, blue light and alarmingly abbreviated texts of our phones! Or indeed our computers - and now increasingly, the television set (and multiple home gadgets and monitoring systems). Over thousands of years, news travelled very slowly indeed - and summers, even during my childhood, meant being outdoors and directly under the exquisite vagaries of the vast, blue (or grey) sky. The stars at night spoke directly to us. Now, the virtual world of Elon Musk’s starship makes variously pixelated, multicolour images upon our screens - surely the latter cannot substitute for the splendours of our traditional summers; and yet we act as if they do!

It turns out that natural light and  sunlight are important not only as the makers of Vitamin D for us, but also for our very survival. That all life would cease without the sun is well known to middle school biology students - so you would think that living away from the outdoors and tied to the internet would be inimical to human life as well, even if it is not all spent in a basement. This is in fact a valid deduction, since several studies have shown us that natural light and sunlight can save us from depression, from breast cancer (50% reduction), from heart disease and from dying (60% reduction in all cause mortality).

The tangible, summer world around us cries out to be touched, seen, heard, inhaled and tasted. But like a coy lover, it will not thrust its ravishing charms upon us. And as often in human experience, we possess the solemn ability to choose our own destiny.

Those of us who are authors and men and women of letters, know that the best way to write a novel, a poem or an article is - to start writing it! In other words, don’t philosophize about it, don’t clench your teeth and determine that you will do it - just do it!

And therefore, it was to my immense delight and satisfaction that this summer, I was able by the Grace of God, to seize the bull by the horns and walk out into the soft summer stillness with my alternate heartbeat, my wife, beside me - and leave the virtual world behind. Why settle for a poor imitation when you can embrace the real thing?!

We even found a solitary bench at the end of a wild trail in the park near our home - and every time, walk after walk, we found it empty, awaiting us, a reward it seemed for choosing life and light and love.

Two weeks ago, I wrote a poem about this:

The Solitary Bench

You and I - and gold and green;

June evening sizzling silver sparkle

in the rushes seen, unseen

our steps slowing and diving swallow

rising again to blinding glow.

Not a soul in sight, not a stir

of human feet, not a trace

of ruffled earth or trampled air.

Only us two and the looming,

growing, glistening, beckoning

bench - and only the light leading.

And now, only the bliss of the kiss

And the sweltering sorrow of leaving.

Step outside, savour the salubrious summer winds, remove the earplugs and headphones and hear the robin’s cheery song. Just do it.