The Artdog Quote(s) of the Week

It’s back! Did you miss the Quote of the Week? A series of Monday holidays and other timing-related posts (as well as Convention-travel schedule-disruptions) have pre-empted this feature recently. But anyway, it’s back today to introduce some thoughts on transitions.

A tree-lined road forms the backdrop for this quote about transitions from Nova Bair: "October's poplars are flaming torches lighting the was to winter."

Transitions as metaphors 

Why do we so often think of summer and winter as “destinations,” but spring and fall as transitions? Probably because spring and fall each manifest more of a progression. In just a few short weeks of spring, we move from freezing temperatures and snow through a greening and warming of the world. We progress through a riot of flowers, fluctuating sunshine and rain. 

But then we settle down into summer. Yes, summer has its phases, too. But they’re more subtle. The wild swings of temperature and plant behavior start up again in autumn. 

Here is a graphic design of a tree, with some of its branches seemingly in each of their normal season, to mark the transitions of the year.
The cycle of seasons in a temperate climate speak to us in metaphors (123RF/Martin Malchev)

If it seems that just a week or so ago I had a window air conditioner in my upstairs office and periodically needed it, that’s because I did. Now the AC unit is in storage. I won’t need it again until May. Meanwhile, my window is available to open for an autumn zephyr or close against a frosty night. 

Comparing the seasons of a temperate climate zone to passages in life is nothing new–but in the realm of lived experiences autumn and spring also mark transitions. The cycle of seasons and holidays, the patterns of academic semesters, and the business cycles most industries go through in a year are part of everyone’s life.

Importance of transitions

Transitions are fraught moments. Important moments. Defining moments. Consider the transitions from child to adult, from midlife to old age, from single to married, from childless to parenthood. Transitions are arguably the most important experiences we have.

A park bench in autumn provides the backdrop for this quote: "All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy, for what we leave behind os is a part of ourselves: we must die to one life before we can enter into the other."

Some of us resist change, even when refusing to change harms us. Some of us fling ourselves wholeheartedly into change, even when doing so is foolish. Our attitudes toward change are hardwired in by genetics, researchers currently think–which is not to say that a habitual conservative may never become optimistic about certain things, or vice-versa.

We are, thank goodness, more than the sum of our genetic parts (or our environment growing up). We can shoot the rapids of even dramatic changes when we find ourselves dealing with new lives.

What it takes is respect for transitions.

IMAGE CREDITS: Many thanks to YourDictionary for the “October” illustrated quote from the poet Nova Schubert Bair, to Martin Malchev of 123RF for the cycle-of-the-seasons illustration, and to Success.com for the illustrated quote from Anatole France.