The roads are quieter in the morning . . . the school-run has stopped.
People are often hard to contact . . . they're away on holiday.
There's no daily reporting from Parliament . . . it's in recess.
To compensate for this lack, sport rises to the occasion . . . and the news is all about golf, tennis and cricket.
But I sometimes wonder if The Silly Season isn't an inaccurate name for a time with so much potential.
Wouldn't The Pregnant Pause be more appropriate?
Just think about it for a moment.
This period of mid-summer is a pause between the vibrant thrust of spring and the slow decline of autumn. It's pregnant because it's about to deliver all the riches of autumn . . . the harvest, the fruits, the splendour of the autumnal colouring. In academic terms, the school year, which started last September, is about to deliver its culminating exam results. These seeds of success will be carried forward by the students and planted in the soil of the new school year.
But how does this period relate to the rest of us?
It's undoubtably a pause, but it's also a meaningful pause . . . a time in which past ideas, good and bad, are ripening and coming to fruition.
Have you noticed how we use the term 'field' to provide the setting for all forms of human activity . . . the field of science, the field of sport, the field of medicine?
It's as though we're unconsciously acknowledging that everything we do has its natural cycle, its seed-time and its harvest.
As summer draws to a close we reap the harvest of those good and bad ideas. Surely it's no mere coincidence that both World Wars started during his critical eight-week period? Not only that, atomic bombs were dropped on on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the second week in August, and who could forget that the Twin Towers fell to the ground on September 11th.In the next few weeks, as we sunbathe on the beach or watch the cricket, it's worth remembering that we're simultaneously conceiving the ideas that will form next season's seeds.
Will they be fertile seeds of peace and prosperity, seeds that will germinate and flourish in the fields of the future?
Who knows. In the field of economics we could well be in for a surprise. Prosperity, as we perceive it, could be changing. May I strongly recommend a recent article by Paul Mason in 'The Guardian'.
Click here to discover how our current pregnant pause could give birth to the postcapitalist era.
A Silly Season . . . ?
No, but we can all do with some light relief . . . I don't suppose you'd happen to know the latest score at the Test Match . . . ?
