Autumn Equinox and the Berrett-Koehler D.C. Writers Group

Last night we had another terrific session of the Washington, D.C. area Berrett-Koehler writers group. We get together four times a year or so for an improvisational writing activity, and to share a meal. The format of the exercises is simple: any member of the group can propose a topic, while specifying a brief time limit for everyone to write whatever comes into their head, without editing.

You can share it aloud with the others, or not. During the meal, several of us talked about the confusion surrounding the autumn equinox (which is celebrated today). “Autumn equinox” duly became a theme topic. (We ultimately wrote on six themes during the session, some generating more words than others.)

I enjoyed this part of the exercise so much that I am including below a lightly edited version of the brief, tongue-in-cheek essay I wrote:

Autumn equinox doesn’t get the kind of respect or brand awareness most people have for the summer and winter solstices. For instance, many of us tonight were not aware that we were almost upon the autumn equinox, which puts the phenomenon in the same boat as everybody and everything else: having to fight for recognition in the marketplace.

In that spirit, I propose rebranding it as AE, with the requisite books full of exquisite photos and serious essays. By AE 2015, I expect to see AE tee-shirts, apps, websites and blogs.

Look out, summer and winter!