The Way I Wish I’d Thought To Put It
In September, the light changes.
I bought the book for its title, a few years ago now.
The comma encourages one to read slowly; reading slowly suggests significance in the phrase. Its genius is that we guess instinctively what a story with this title is going to be about (and it isn’t the quality of light around Labor Day).
Yet literally the phrase is true, and has to be if it isn’t going to be portentous. This morning September dawned cooler than it’s been in months. The hummingbirds are dueling over the feeders and the best branches on the neighbors’ apple trees. And in the low humidity and slightly shifted angle of the sun, the light has changed.
