What Will Rocky Mount Do With Its September Days?

It is September, and an old song surfaces.

I grew up knowing September Song from the back seat of my parents’ car. They would sing it, and somewhere along the way my mother told me it was a love song. I accepted that explanation and the song has gone before me all these years without asking much more of it.

Now, all these years later, I find myself hearing it differently.

I looked up this information about the song. It was written in 1938 for the Broadway musical Knickerbocker Holiday, with music by Kurt Weill and lyrics by Maxwell Anderson. Walter Huston introduced it in the role of Peter Stuyvesant, an older man contemplating love and the passing of time. Like my reading life, I am always pleased when there is something more waiting beyond the story I thought I already knew.

But the history is not why the song has come back to me this September.

It is the image at its center, the long distance from May to December, and the realization that by September the days are growing shorter.

As a child, I heard the melody.

As an older woman, I hear the meaning.

There comes a point in life when time no longer feels endless. The days do begin to dwindle down, and because they do, they become more precious.

That thought has stayed with me these September days.

Am I spending them well?

Am I giving my attention to what deserves it?

Am I using these precious days in the best manner I can?

My mother was exactly right, September Song is a love song. But I understand love differently now. Love is not only about the people with whom we choose to spend our remaining days. It is also about what we choose to spend those days caring about.

And that is where my thoughts turn, as they so often do, to my writing about Rocky Mount.

A community has precious days too.

There are buildings that can be saved while there is still time to save them. There are neighborhoods that can be strengthened, relationships that can be repaired, people who can be encouraged to step forward, ideas that can still become action.

But opportunities do not wait forever.

There comes a point when a roof has failed too long, when a building has deteriorated beyond reasonable rescue, when a business has closed, when someone who might have served decides not to, when another year passes and the thing we meant to do remains undone.

Perhaps communities have their own September.

Not an ending, but a season when time becomes more noticeable, when choices matter more because we understand that opportunities are not unlimited.

September is not a despairing month, but beautiful. The light changes. The air changes. The days shorten.

This old song has come back to remind me …..

To notice.

To choose carefully.

To love what deserves loving.

To spend the precious days well.

This is a question worth asking not only of ourselves, but of the place we call home.

What will Rocky Mount do with its September days?

FYI:

September Song

Oh, it’s a long, long while
From May to December
But the days grow short
When you reach September

When the autumn weather
Turn leaves to flame
One hasn’t got time
For the waiting game

Oh, the days dwindle down
To a precious few
September, November
And these few precious days
I’ll spend with you
These precious days
I’ll spend with you