I want to put an item on my Christmas list this year.
The holiday is only four months away, and I saw two things this past week that really made me realize this. One was a pickup truck driving past South Beach in Marquette with a snow blower in the bed, and the other was leaves changing color. I shudder every time I look at them.
Anyway, that got me thinking about my annual Christmas list. For decades, it’s had two things on it that I think are really cool: world peace and my own spaceship. I haven’t gotten either of those yet, which really makes me question my faith in Santa, but when I saw the snow blower and the leaves changing color, it occurred to me that maybe I should add a third item: a free month every summer.
Let me explain. Summers in UP are short and we try to cram as much into them as possible. Because of this, summer can sometimes fly by. One day it’s Memorial Day and the next you see snow blowers in the back of pickup trucks.
It’s just not fair.
So I’m thinking of asking Santa to give everyone in the UP who wants it a summer month free from all responsibilities. No work, no visitors, no obligations, nothing. They get a month to enjoy the beauty and fun of a summer in Upper Michigan.
You can take any month off: June for the sun, July for the heat, or August when the temperatures drop. It doesn’t matter which month. What matters is that you have a month off. We try to pack enough of that into our summers already. Having a month to just enjoy the season while it’s here is a gift we can all appreciate, I think.
So I’m going to put that on my Christmas list this year and maybe Santa will listen. After all, I was so successful in getting both world peace and my own spaceship that asking for a month off in the summer should be a no-brainer. Right?
