Waking up early this morning, I suddenly felt a hint of autumn in the air. The air was no longer as stuffy and there was a slight chill. With the start of school and the end of summer vacation, summer has completely passed. Although the temperature hasn't changed much and I'm still wearing short sleeves, the summer atmosphere is no longer present in the air.
Around August 23rd each year is the end of summer. This is a solar term that falls between the height of summer and the beginning of autumn. The term "end" means "to stop". The summer heat gradually fades away and autumn is on its way. The ancients said, "At the beginning of autumn and the end of summer, the heat is intense. You shouldn't take off your clothes and expose your body, but rather enjoy the cool breeze." This means that even though it still looks like the height of summer, there is already a subtle coolness. It's time to stop going shirtless when drinking and eating meat at night, and to cover yourself with a thin blanket when sleeping.
In the morning, I listened to Hu Defu's song "Hurry". I listened to this white-haired old man sing, "The passing of time leaves no trace."
You see, summer is about to pass, but it feels like nothing has happened.
In stories related to summer, there are passionate, vivid, and vibrant emotions, as well as unfulfilled regrets. There is burning, there is youth, and there are good times that will never return. Perhaps everyone has a summer that they can never forget. That's why we have the feeling of being lost when we say, "Summer is over, but nothing happened."
We always feel that time is pressing because our perception of time is becoming more and more tense. People have different perceptions of time at different stages. Children see time as a loop. After spring comes summer, and after summer comes autumn. One semester ends, and the next semester will come, year after year. So children are not very worried about another summer passing. They think about quickly finishing the remaining homework and seeing their "old classmates" in the new semester.
But gradually, we will find that time is actually a spiral, constantly rotating forward. Although it repeats year after year, "each year and each season brings different people". Realizing that we will become different people in time is exciting, yet a bit unsettling. Perhaps the worst feeling is when we perceive time as a line. As the saying goes, "Time flies like an arrow." Once the arrow is shot, it will never return, and we don't know where it will ultimately land.
In Japanese, "the end of summer" is called "夏が終わった" (natsu ga owatta). This phrase contains many unspeakable meanings, just like "the moonlight is beautiful tonight". "The end of summer" actually signifies the end of a song, the end of a performance, the final whistle, the dispersal of a feast. It symbolizes disillusionment.
And all we can do is accept it and then let go.
A friend once told me that time is like a train running at an accelerating speed. It starts off slow, but gradually accelerates and becomes faster and faster, unable to stop. This metaphor caused me long-term anxiety. So I always remember it. But later on, I realized that this comparison is too scary. In fact, a person's perception of time varies in different environments.
"A person's perception of time is a product of their environment."
Our current perception of time is shaped by various environmental factors surrounding us. Since the Industrial Revolution, people have changed their daily routines from the agricultural era and replaced it with clock time instead of relying on the changing of daylight and the flow of seasons. We no longer live according to the changing sky and the passing of seasons, but rather in the standardized measurement of clock time. Now, our time is measured in minutes and seconds. Our communication is instant, with hot topics on social media updating every minute, and there is always news happening. And judging from recent events, usually nothing good.
This is the era we live in. Time is not just an arrow, it's like the arrow formation in the movie "Hero", shooting towards us in a dense and overwhelming manner.
We have nowhere to hide.
What I want to say is that some beautiful things have never really left us. They still reside within our bodies, and if we encounter the right environment, they will come back to life. It's like having a secret seed in our hearts. It will accompany me through countless difficult nights and guide me through the fog of real life. Finally, one day, I will arrive at a promised land in my heart and let it take root and sprout. I tell myself not to panic, those things are still there. What you need to do is calm down and do what you need to do now.
The essence of time is its content. Time is colorless and tasteless, without shape. When we look back and search for time, we find that it is made up of one event after another. Just as Gabriel Garcia Marquez said, "Life is not what we have experienced, life is what we remember."
"Summer is about to pass, but it feels like nothing happened."
This line is from the movie "Blue Gate". The story is about a girl's confusion and helplessness during her adolescence. She is confused about her sexual orientation, as she likes girls and secretly loves her best friend. But this secret love eventually ends their friendship. I like the ending of the movie. Two young people trapped in their youth ride their bicycles recklessly through the streets. Each person's youth is like the peak of summer in their life. So intense, yet so short-lived. But summer is about to pass, and it feels like they haven't gained anything.
But life is about experiences. Where can we truly gain something? Just like the most beautiful part of summer is the anticipation and longing. The real harvest comes in autumn.
Summer is over, and it feels like nothing happened. Most of life is like this, plain and monotonous, but it can bring infinite emotional twists and turns at certain moments.
However, as Japanese picture book author Yoko Sano wrote in "Without Gods or Buddhas": "Every moment has its own joy. No matter how bad the moment is, people can live on with small joys. The key to life is to discover many small joys."
Autumn is still worth looking forward to. 🍂