I didn't get a summer vacation trip this year, but I did take a short autumn trip to Idaho last week - more like summer, as it turned out, with heat in the mid to upper 80s all week. But the shadows were long, morning and afternoon, and the evening came early. My younger brothers were down from Alaska, each of them for a month but overlapping for the week I was there. My older brother and younger sister live in Idaho, so the five of us were all there for the first time in several years. Our parents are amazingly fit - little change over the past decades, with their travel and church involvement and keeping up a very attractive house. But they are in their 80s, which is hard to believe.
I found myself with an odd double-vision - seeing my brothers and sister as young when they are, at least chronologically, middle-aged at the very least. My parents seem unchanging, and I feel very much my youngish, unformed self when I am there.
The time passed too quickly. I was back in Minnesota before I had a chance to have any real insights into the big questions of time passing, love and yearning and loss. I also didn't get quite caught up on my sleep while I was there, then was propelled into rapid motion for the rest of the work week when I returned.
It's full-bore autumn back here in Minnesota. I watched a swirling mass of leaves torn from the trees yesterday on campus. For some reason it came as a big surprise.
And the neighbors are already decorating for Halloween.
