|
Have you ever thought about what it means to be "seasonal"? Does "seasonal" have positive or negative connotations for you? When I started telling friends, family, clients and colleagues that I was moving from Silicon Valley to Martha's Vineyard, many of them said, "You know, I really miss the seasons."
Having grown up on the East Coast, I moved to California in 1988. Initially, I liked having only two seasons--wet and dry. As time went on, I discovered that there really is only one season--the season of constant motion, endless pressure to meet someone else's definition of success, and
never-ending stimulation. I found that being "seasonless" meant no time to rest, recharge, or adjust. And while spending fifteen years in that environment was very good for us economically, we decided that we just couldn't keep up the pace, and did not want to raise our daughter in that stressful atmosphere.
So we moved full-time into our Martha's Vineyard home last June. I thoroughly enjoy the changing of the seasons, and am grateful that nature sometimes forces us to stop and think. I've also discovered that we deal with a few more seasons than most communities.
First, there are the obvious four: winter, spring, summer and fall. Our island goes through these same cycles each year, although we seem to have avoided spring altogether last year. The darkness of winter forces us inside to reflect and get ready for the new year. Bright yellow daffodils of spring remind us that it's time to start waking up and moving again. Summer's heat and humidity encourage us to move slowly, and enjoy the blessings of our beaches. Fall is the special time when the colors of summer fade and we get to reclaim our island and our lives.
Seems pretty simple, right? Well, I've discovered that there are several other seasons that we deal with. Perhaps the most obvious is the tourist season, or whatever the opposite of "off-season" is. Those few months in the summer when our population grows almost tenfold, every bit of our resources are used up, and our last nerves become fried. In stark contrast to what the weather wants us to do, most of us are forced into a frenzy during July and August (and sometimes June and September as well).
Prior to tourist season, we go through what I call "gearing up" season. This starts in March when restaurants and other businesses that have been closed start opening up again. The calendar sections of the newspapers have more than just a few events listed. Streets become crowded with pedestrians on the first sunny day. I wouldn't say that "gearing up" season actually coincides with spring, since we could very likely experience winter weather during this season.
After tourist season is over and we begin to move into the off-season, we experience "winding down" season. "Winding down" begins when the first businesses begin closing in October, and finishes early in January, when the fewest are open. At the end of "winding down", we become the most introspective--especially this past January when the extreme cold severely limited any outdoor activity.
Finally, I think of off-season is that period between "winding down" and "gearing up"--early January through mid-March. For those of us who are parents of school-age children, this season is interrupted by February break, which can be a brief respite from the otherwise sleepy off-season. During the off-season, we recharge our selves, our businesses, our sense of community.
So, living in a seasonal community is much more complex than I originally thought. We've got the four calendar seasons overlapped by the unique seasons of our Island. Some of us love the idea of working like crazy during tourist season, and having the rest of the year off. Others get frustrated and depressed during "winding down" and the off-season. It's clear that each of us deals with seasonality differently, and that seasonality here is different from seasonality anywhere else.
For me, the rich and complex seasonality of Martha's Vineyard beats the stressful seasonlessness of Silicon Valley any day.
|
|
