Margie on summer

“Isn’t summer the best? I’ve always loved summer. Your skin can breathe. People relax. Maybe they’re uptight and worried all year, but summer comes, and the light lasts into the night, and there’s a kind of easing up. Everybody goes outside, whether it’s Central Park in New York or that place down the street from here, I forget the name, you know the one. 

“Everybody takes a little enjoyment. I love to find a bench to sit on in the shade. I watch people walking past, and they slow down a little. If they’re in a rush all year, they slow down in the summer, just to feel the air, soak up the light. They put on cotton shirts, shorts, sandals. There’s a kind of built-in ease that comes in the summer. 

“I’m ready to go anytime, it’s been long enough, this life, and damn lucky. I’ve been so lucky, had such a great life, I’m satisfied, enough already. But if I have to go on being here, I’m glad I get to enjoy summer one more time.”