Autumn 2007

By Alan Caruba

Today, like all others, is filled with controversies and potential threats to the peace of the world. There's a debate raging over a UN Laws of the Sea Treaty with the apt acronym "LOST" because it would create a funding stream for the utterly corrupt United Nations and impinge on our national sovereignty. The horrors out of the Middle East fill the headlines. Drought threatens Georgia. A tempest rages off the coast of Florida.

Et cetera.

And, today, I drove over to the little "village" area of my former, lifelong hometown of Maplewood, NJ from neighboring South Orange where I now reside and I enjoyed the trees turning the hues of Autumn and the brisk, but comfortable chill in the air. Overhead some flocks of birds were migrating south.

Living in the northeast where the season is most prominently on display makes the troubles of the world and the nation fade, if only momentarily, into the tableau of a picture-perfect suburban landscape with the homes nicely spaced and the lawns swept clean of fallen leaves.

To be oblivious of this is the business of children, intent on discovering everything because everything is new and that which is known is taken for granted. For those old enough to understand the beauty and the glory that such days bestow, they are unique pleasures to be enjoyed.