Labor Day Weekend 2013

It was just Memorial day. How did this happen?

Same thing every year, and I haven't even fired up the grill once. But I'll correct that this weekend when I seek out a leg of wild boar for my lonely Weber. Or maybe a slab of frozen alligator--I saw some in the freezer at Holiday Market last time I was there.

What's on my mind as summer drains though the hourglass is Buddha's statement, that our only problem is that "we think we have time." Labor day brings that notion home with the the peculiar wistfulness and nostalgia of the imminent fall.

So, what can we do to stretch time, as it were? William Burroughs, the beat writer whose friends were Alan Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, posited that flagrantly wasting time--sitting around doing little or nothing, save meditation--could make the days stretch out like taffy.

Other philosophers urge us to take a "carpe diem" approach and to go for the gusto, cramming as much excitement and adrenalin into our days as possible. Take a chance, try something new, skydive in Tecumseh or head out west for some white water.

Me? I'm going for the exotic game meat if I can find it. I'm starting to think the anti-biotic laced, hormone-infused factory pork, chicken and beef I grew up on may be shortening my days. Not unlike driving on Ford road at 5pm on a Friday.

Take stock, people. Do something flagrantly wonderful this weekend. Labor day need not be laborious, after all.