The Thing about Fall is....

that we go about it all wrong. Other than winter, I would see we, as humans, do the most "celebrating" during the autumn season. And, if you think about it, the only reason winter is more of a 'celebratory' season is because of the holidays associated with it--Christmas and New Year's Day. Fall, essentially, is celebrated for its role as a 'season' only; there are no great holidays associated with it (well, except for Halloween, which celebrates the fact that there is a night where dead spirits can roam the earth.....MY kind of 'celebration!!!')

But therein is the funny part about fall: What are we celebrating? What happens in the fall? Well, everything dies. And days get darker. And people spend more time inside. And it gets colder and less desirable to BE outside even if it were light out (oh sure....everyone loves the nicey crispy fally sunny days for about two weeks, so they can show off their Eddie Bauer sweaters....but let's face it, when the temp dips below 50 degrees, Americans complain about how cold it is). But maybe that is why we celebrate fall, simply because it gives us carte blanche to complain, and complain with indignance (and I dont care what you say, COMPLAINING is the great American pasttime--and I am very guilty of this as well).

Fall is just a disjointed season: We have all these "harvest fair" kinds of things and "welcome fall" kinds of parties with apple things and donut things and cider things-how come we never have any 'spring' parties like this? There is no celebration of the 'beginning' of life anew--but we are so quick to celebrate death with all these county and country fairs. What is also funny to me is how autumn is the 'harvest' season....but, as someone who grows herbs and vegetables, I can tell you that by now my gardens have just about been picked bare. I mean, we are into the CANNING and preserving season, but there really is nothing else to harvest. And 'scarecrows' are SUCH a mainstay of the fall season; they are as identifiable with fall as pumpkins, witches, and ghosts. But wouldnt scarecrows be more of a 'summer' kind of fixture, like right when you are planting your garden and everything is more tender and young and vulnerable? How come there now scarecrow "summer" decorations? And finally, speaking of decorations, fall is the only season where our decorations and adornments are, essentially, trash, cattle feed, compost, dead plants,and insect torture-chambers--hay, cornstalks, spider webs, and fallen leaves make up the crux of seasonal garb. And we pay money for this stuff.....

I've written before on this blow about how fall is indeed the most misunderstood season of them all--we try to rush in fall (folks go apple picking at the beginning of September when it is 88 degrees, but they still wear vests and jackets) but then we are so slow (and dare I say TRICKED) by the season itself; fall laughs at us by conspiring with an early winter, and, before you know it, fall is over, and all those decorations become soggified pieces of carrion pumpkins and gourds that sit out until spring and tarnish the crisp, bright colors of the Christmas decorations, which will most likely be out before the first week of November....

But fall does have one thing that makes this all seemingly worthwhile: I am talking, of course, about one of the best films of all time, "The NIghtmare Before Christmas."