Summer is Yellow
I tell you what I have really been enjoying recently. The demise of winter, or more accurately, the glorious, bombastic charge of summer over the horizon, heralded by the daffodils on the common rearing their heads like blossoming yellow trumpets hoisted over the green hordes of the battlefield. I know it is my usual style to try and be funny or clever in these articles, but that is only in service of the grander purpose of bringing joy to those who are intelligent enough to take 5 minutes out of their day to read them (like you). The joy that I’m sharing with you this week is my love of the graceful changing of the seasons from the cold, dark and wet to the hot, bright and beautiful.
I don’t have the data on where my readership are based around the world. Other than that my articles often get about 10 views and I know about half of those are my friends that live in the UK. If you are reading this and winter shows no signs of abating, maybe there is still snow on the roads and you’re still dressed like a South Park character, my heart goes out to you for more than one reason. But in London, I am very much looking at Winter in the rear view mirror. I have declared to my friends many times already in January and February that Summer is here, it’s a mix of wishful-thinking and tongue-in-cheek self-satire. Throughout winter, I came to view the morning opening of the curtains as akin to a pack-opening on a malicious video game, where every pack I open, I have the small hope that I will strike gold, I will unpack a marvellous Legendary card or a magnificent sunny day will be revealed to me. But the much more typical feeling was a numb disappointment swathed in a sea of grey. I write this, though, looking out my window onto a beautiful cloudless, if slightly cold, day. The sun is filling every crevice with its radiance and all you need to do to feel the warmth it provides is not be in a north-facing room, unfortunately I am in a north-facing room but I can imagine how good it would be if I wasn’t!
In the last week or two, every time I have gone to the shop or the pub, I have not needed anything more warm than simple hoodie and yes, maybe I pop the hood up to give me a little extra cosiness and seem like a brooding, dangerous youth in my urban landscape, but I see other citizens walking around with their coats and their gloves and I can’t help but laugh, did they not get the memo? This is part of the reason for me writing this, I can’t be having me walking along blasting Blue Skies by MattyBRaps out my comically-large boombox while the rest of the world gives me looks silently condemning my wifebeater and swimming trunks. This is the memo. It’s summer now, you can put your coat away.
Some of you may talk heresy about the existence of a third season, “spring”, and it is a concept I was needlessly shackled to for the majority of my life but there is no need for that. Spring is fantastic, it’s bright, it’s flowery, it is a place where baby animals appear, cute calves that chase you down the other side of the fence as you cycle parallel to them, willing them to follow you on your bike all the way to infinity. The key difference between what people perceive as spring and summer is entirely psychological. Spring, with all its symbols of a new era, signifies hope, when actually there is no reason why it shouldn’t be the thing that we are hoping for. Summer is just beautified spring, but it’s up to the individual to beautify spring to themselves and view it as what it is, summer. So when you leave the house next, look around at the world and ask yourself whether it’s beautiful. If it’s not, it’s winter. If it is, it’s summer. But the choice is up to you.
I’m sure I’ll get very little response to this but I’m declaring Reader Mail open! I would love to hear your opinion on anything! If you would like a prompt, I would love to hear your thoughts on summer. Next week’s article will be a story about the open mic night I went to this week if you fancy chipping into that.
Either reply or DM me on Twitter @CallumRG21, email me callumrg21@gmail.com or I’m sure there’s some way you can comment on Medium itself (I never try as the only other people that write here are forex traders) and you can be featured in a future article.
