Fall

Fall has the double meaning of the season and the verb. This is as it should be. The most visible signal of this season is the leaves of the trees changing color and falling to the ground.

     It is a symbol of death, of course, and a very vivid one. The leaves do indeed die, and somewhere I have heard that their color indicates how painful a death it is. The more red a leaf is, the more violent - if that is the word - its death is. It might be pure nonsense, but still intriguing.

     Whatever the color, the leaves dropping from the trees, drying out and shrivelling, is a melancholy thing, speaking of the cyclic nature of life itself, and of that glimpse of time which is a lifespan. Kicking the leaves around on an autumn stroll, one cannot help but ponder such grave matters.

     That's the beauty of the fall - in both meanings of the word.

     Take a stroll through the fall, kick around the leaves.