"Don't cry because it's over..."

We are well past the Autumnal Equinox, the day when the Sun appears exactly above the Earth's equator as it moves from north to south, thereby ending Summer in the Northern Hemisphere and Winter in the Southern Hemisphere.  The days are growing shorter, and the nights are getting longer.  The leaves are starting to turn.  The Major League Baseball play-offs have started, and both the college and professional football seasons are in full swing.  Summer has always been my favorite season of the year, and it always makes me a little sad to see the seasons finally change.  But as Theodore Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss so wisely said, "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."  There's a lot more meaning in that quote than the simple passing of the seasons.  

Unfortunately, as is so often the case, Dr. Seuss never actually said that quote.  A high school student, Christopher Roche, was delivering his valedictorian speech at graduation and added those words to a quote from Dr. Seuss' book, Oh, The Places You'll Go ("We're off to great places, so let's be on our way").  The quote is rightly attributed to the German poet, Ludwig Jacobowski, who used the line in his poem "Bright Days" from 1899:

Ah, our brilliant days

shine like eternal stars,

They glow past as consolation

for future sorrow.

Don’t cry because it’s over!

Smile because they have been!

And if the days get cloudier,

Our stars redeem!

Regardless of who said it, the sentiment is one that we should all pay heed.