“Here Comes Summer…”
Posted by Jim Pedley on June 1, 2009
“Summertime, and the living is easy…” So go the words of one of my favourite Gershwin melodies.
It was only ten days ago that I was writing about the British winter and its upstart sudden snowfalls that that brought about the decision to close all our schools and most of our offices.
And allowed families to have a little funtime together…
But wait. We’ve drifted into the month of June, and British Summertime has officially begun. Here we are, well into a swift and typical British climatic swaparound, wherein the sun is hot, and the TV doctors busy warning us all that if you intend to stay outside today, lapping up the ultra-violet rays, then dive into a pot of sun cream – preferably about Factor Hundred and Thirty – and don’t stay out in this vicious sunshine for too long.
A couple of weeks ago, youngsters were wrapped in thick anoraks against the biting cold of Arctic winter. Today, they are seeking the derelict quarries that are filled with maybe twenty feet or more of icy waters in which to dive and play around and cool themselves down.
Trouble is: these kids take no regard of the “Danger” notices posted around the perimeters of these artificial lakes, and they can be overcome by the chilling effects of hypothermia – says me, who used to do exactly the same things myself as a youngster. Nevertheless, the danger is there, as was proved by the recovery of a fifteen-year-old’s body this morning. The lad disappeared after swimming in a quarry yesterday and police divers finally discovered his drowned body this morning…
Why do there have to be “seasonal” tragedies? How often do we have the Christmastime plane crash; the springtime paraglider hurtling at fifty-miles-an-hour into the green sward of some distant meadow as its engine fails; the summer’s day tragedy at the beach as some young child is swept out to sea by currents not noticed by inattentive parents; the autumn farm accident as a farmhand is trapped under a tractor or threshing machine; the winter pile-ups on the motorways as drivers ignore the icy conditions.
I suppose it’s because we are the human race and we all know how fallible the human race is.
But, never mind. We seem to make progress in spite of our failings – well, in technology, anyway. I wonder if technology will ever improve the workings of the human spirit? Maybe one day we will all be technologised into robots where the failings of the flesh and spirit won’t matter…
Who knows..?
Who cares…?
