Last summer day

The academic calendar starts just about now.

A different season. Different drum beat.

Formula and conjugation.

Grades and test scores.

Cafeteria and classroom.

Principal and peers.

Pranks and punishment.

Same starting point, different finish lines.

Education is democratic in nature.

I admire people in wheel chairs, still being wheeled their way around the library, trying to reach up to the latest titles (Tillman or Unbroken).

I wish we could apply Moore’s Law to our cognitive development.

As it turns out, our brain capacity can process much more information, forming knowledge stream, and turning them into usable grains of wisdom (emotional and social intelligence).

The end of all learning should be to form a capacity for empathy, to see others in their historical and social context, from their frame of reference.

This is the underlining assumption of many art forms such as cinema and work of fiction.

In fact, we need escapism. During the Great Depression, Hollywood did quite well.

This time around, cinema still manages to stay afloat (without McCarthyism).

We also enjoy the news as presented live and downstream much faster thanks to broadband connection. Newsbreak has been more interesting than fiction (The Social Network, Arab Spring and London Summer – which BTW, an antithesis to the fairytale version of the Royal Wedding , same version as earlier centennials’).

This summer has been a summer of disasters, from environmental (drought) to economic *(drought), from political blunder to criminal assaults (Oslo).

But our kids are back to school. It’s a blessing in disguise. It brings back normalcy.

Or something like it. It reminds us that we have been there,and are still here years later.

Had we known then, what we know now.

That vantage point could only be viewed from hindsight.

It’s called exposure and experience. It’s called empathy. It’s called optimism, because the last summer day, actually signifies the beginning of a beautiful Fall, with foliage and cool fronts. In Vermont and Maine, Fall actually is the most beautiful and livable time.

Hopefully, it’s a start of a new fiscal year and fiscally restrained calendar for leaders around the world. Remember, they once started this season like everyone else: in an elementary classroom. Same starting point, different finishing lines.