Live a Little

Summer Dispatch

It is the last day of school, and the real start of summer here at our house. Camps and lakes and ice cream awaits, and even though the air smells of toasted futures, the frisbees are out and the patios buzzing.

This is also the start of the typewriter's summer break. We are starting a home reno next week and she's going into storage till September, but that's ok. We all deserve a break. It's time to live a little.

Live a little...it's a great term, often taken condescendingly, but its core is solid. I thought about it last night at a fabulous concert with Cimafunk.

If you don't know Cimafunk, go listen now. He is an Afro Cuban spawn of James Brown, Parliament, Prince, and Fela Kuti...the most energetic and talented performer I have seen in twenty years.. From the moment his band took the stage not a single ass in that place stood still. Young asses, old asses, rhythmic Cuban asses and wooden WASP ones. Each song was a riot of sound, color and unleashed joy. For two solid hours Cimafunk made every person in that venue feel truly alive.

I went to the show with my good friend Adam Caplan, and right before Cima came on, he was talking about the fear of AI taking over, and I was talking about the smoke from the wildfires, and other unpleasant realities. But then, in that first majestic blast of Cuban horns, those worries evaporated, and we just lived. A lot.

Life is hard. We all face fears, hold worries, and try to stay afloat amid it.

A lot of our time is spent drowning in information that only exacerbates that feeling: social media feeds and news scrolls, podcast streams and threads of messages. At this time of the year we need to remember to live a little.

Step back and step out. Take a break. Get on a bike or board. Meet up with friend. See a show. Go somewhere. Swim. Fish. Hike. Drink a beer in a park. Fly a kite.

Live as much as you can, because this is it. If you don't live a little, no one will do it for you. Now is the time. The work can wait, like school, or your phone or the news.

Just live. However much you can. Because if you don't take the opportunity to live a little, what is the point of life at all?

Have an amazing summer. Thank you for reading. See you in September.

DS