Autumn arrives

Equinox: from the Latin for "equal night," meaning that the length of daylight and evening hours are just about equal at this time, the vernal or autumnal equinox.

Today, officially, is the first day of fall - my favorite time of year. Here in Sarasota it doesn't feel much like fall in the traditional sense; it is, after all, in the 90s or close every day. Still, there's the feeling that we're all settling in and getting down to business. School clothes, book buying, tests, Homecoming, Winter Break, spring finals . . . scholars often claim that contemporary humans have lost the cyclical sense of time our ancient forebears used to have, that because most of us no longer reckon our existence based on the planting cycle we forget there are seasons. But for those of us in academia, the years go by in a continuous spiral of beginning, middle, end and back to beginning. I've said this before, but I'll say it again - many people do not welcome fall with the same sense of pleasure I do, because if winter is the metaphorical death of the year, then autumn is its slow decline. For me, though, autumn will always be the finest season, a time of new beginnings and fresh possibilities.