The Seasons: An Elegy for the Passing of the Year

For millennia, the passing seasons and their rhythms have marked our progress through the year. But what do they mean to us now that we lead increasingly atomized and urban lives, and our weather becomes ever more unpredictable or extreme? Will it matter if we no longer notice, even hear, the first cuckoo call of spring, or rejoice in the mellow fruits of harvest festival? How much will we lose if we can no longer find either refuge or reassurance in the greater natural—and meteorological—s...