Autumn

I find that there's something reassuringly primeval about this time of year with the dead leaves having completely fallen from the trees, and lying piles into brown decaying heaps in the gutters before the street-sweepers come to remove them. Somehow, it feels as if nature is proving that she could take over again if man were to disappear and that our concrete and asphalt could be covered completely in a matter of years.

It's a mournful time of year. This year, there isn't even a good summer to reminisce about, yet the days are cold and the evenings long. And while reflecting upon mankind's place in the world, autumn is the time to realise that we're only a blip on the screen, here only for a brief moment and then gone the way of all the other species - I seem to remember that most species only have a life of a million or so years, so we are a good way into our communal oblivion even if we don't continue to hasten our doom by causing global warming, atmospheric poisoning or some such catastrophe.
Somehow, I don't mind. Gaia will manage without us.


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