August
By Dr. Marvin Miller, AIB President
I recently saw an article that bemoaned what the month of August has become and longed for that slower period, when August was a lazier time likened to the calm before the storm. The author noted that with school bells ringing earlier and earlier in the year, August’s reputation as a quiet time had given way to a rather hectic period, filled with back-to-school preparations and the like. Indeed, the stereotypical reports of what one did during their summer vacations are now delivered in the classrooms during the time when those vacations once took place. The author compounded the contrast by noting that the everyday pace of life has quickened, and the idea that there should be a “down time,” as August once was, was so foreign to many that we may never again experience true relaxation.
I found the article both disconcerting and yet comforting, for I knew exactly what the author meant, but I also recognized the antidote. Life’s pace has indeed been altered. Cell phones, emails, and text messages all provide additional and faster ways to stay in touch. The traditional activities once associated with a post-Labor Day period, now get accomplished weeks earlier, so we can all “get a jump on things.” Truth be known that when we all accelerate the pace, no one really gets a jump on anyone. It is just as if the starter’s gun has fired that much earlier, and the race is on for all contestants.
Yet, life’s respite is just a garden away. When I “go to the garden,” I leave the world behind. When I get my daily dose of nature, my natural sense of balance is restored. A visit to a park allows one to recompose one’s compass, to change direction, even for a moment, so that things are kept in perspective and the “natural order” is restored. The great thing about this attitude is this can be done in August or in any month and with great planning or just on the spur of the moment.
Chicago’s former Mayor Daley had a unique perspective about parks in the urban environment. He wanted every citizen to be within a few blocks of a park, specifically so that nature’s recuperative role was within easy reach. When city-owned vacant land for such parks was found scarce within certain neighborhoods, he looked to the Chicago Board of Education to transform the blacktop playgrounds that often surrounded classroom buildings into public parks that just happened to contain a school in their midst.
The experiment proved successful on so many fronts. First, the mayor got his parks. Secondly, the neighborhoods adopted these school grounds-turned-parks as their own, and the vandalism the school buildings experienced was dramatically reduced. The ranks of school advisory boards, which had often been depleted by lack of commitment, swelled for the first time in years. And the most amazing result was that grades of the students in the schools shot up, as students reportedly were more focused on school work after being exposed to green spaces during their recesses.
Ancillary benefits were also derived. Crime statistics dropped in many neighborhoods, perhaps, as a result of more people being out and about. Property values also increased for homes in close proximity to the parks. And Chicagoans reported a “greater sense of place” in the proximities nearest the parks, perhaps, because the parks provided reference points with which whole neighborhoods could relate and occasionally gather.
Parks certainly can become great places for those seeking a respite from the normal hectic pace of life. Yet, many of the benefits associated with public parks can also accrue to those who create a park-like setting in their own surroundings. I know a visit to my yard provides a great start and/or end to my day, and I have heard from countless neighbors who tell me their daily constitutional often includes travel to my block, specifically to see what is in bloom in my yard. Park-like settings at businesses and office parks can also create oases for guests and employees to gather and relax.
While exposure to things natural won’t replace those lazy, hazy days of Augusts gone by, it is nice to know that even in the hectic-paced lives we now lead, that nature can still deliver a breather when a deep breath alone is not quite enough.
I recently saw an article that bemoaned what the month of August has become and longed for that slower period, when August was a lazier time likened to the calm before the storm. The author noted that with school bells ringing earlier and earlier in the year, August’s reputation as a quiet time had given way to a rather hectic period, filled with back-to-school preparations and the like. Indeed, the stereotypical reports of what one did during their summer vacations are now delivered in the classrooms during the time when those vacations once took place. The author compounded the contrast by noting that the everyday pace of life has quickened, and the idea that there should be a “down time,” as August once was, was so foreign to many that we may never again experience true relaxation.
I found the article both disconcerting and yet comforting, for I knew exactly what the author meant, but I also recognized the antidote. Life’s pace has indeed been altered. Cell phones, emails, and text messages all provide additional and faster ways to stay in touch. The traditional activities once associated with a post-Labor Day period, now get accomplished weeks earlier, so we can all “get a jump on things.” Truth be known that when we all accelerate the pace, no one really gets a jump on anyone. It is just as if the starter’s gun has fired that much earlier, and the race is on for all contestants.
Yet, life’s respite is just a garden away. When I “go to the garden,” I leave the world behind. When I get my daily dose of nature, my natural sense of balance is restored. A visit to a park allows one to recompose one’s compass, to change direction, even for a moment, so that things are kept in perspective and the “natural order” is restored. The great thing about this attitude is this can be done in August or in any month and with great planning or just on the spur of the moment.
Chicago’s former Mayor Daley had a unique perspective about parks in the urban environment. He wanted every citizen to be within a few blocks of a park, specifically so that nature’s recuperative role was within easy reach. When city-owned vacant land for such parks was found scarce within certain neighborhoods, he looked to the Chicago Board of Education to transform the blacktop playgrounds that often surrounded classroom buildings into public parks that just happened to contain a school in their midst.
The experiment proved successful on so many fronts. First, the mayor got his parks. Secondly, the neighborhoods adopted these school grounds-turned-parks as their own, and the vandalism the school buildings experienced was dramatically reduced. The ranks of school advisory boards, which had often been depleted by lack of commitment, swelled for the first time in years. And the most amazing result was that grades of the students in the schools shot up, as students reportedly were more focused on school work after being exposed to green spaces during their recesses.
Ancillary benefits were also derived. Crime statistics dropped in many neighborhoods, perhaps, as a result of more people being out and about. Property values also increased for homes in close proximity to the parks. And Chicagoans reported a “greater sense of place” in the proximities nearest the parks, perhaps, because the parks provided reference points with which whole neighborhoods could relate and occasionally gather.
Parks certainly can become great places for those seeking a respite from the normal hectic pace of life. Yet, many of the benefits associated with public parks can also accrue to those who create a park-like setting in their own surroundings. I know a visit to my yard provides a great start and/or end to my day, and I have heard from countless neighbors who tell me their daily constitutional often includes travel to my block, specifically to see what is in bloom in my yard. Park-like settings at businesses and office parks can also create oases for guests and employees to gather and relax.
While exposure to things natural won’t replace those lazy, hazy days of Augusts gone by, it is nice to know that even in the hectic-paced lives we now lead, that nature can still deliver a breather when a deep breath alone is not quite enough.
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