Summertime Sadness: The Return of the Cicadas

It’s the thick of summer in Chicago. It’s hot, perfect weather for going to the beach. The sun doesn’t set until after 8pm, and calendars are filling up with plans to see friends and loved ones, play beach volleyball, see concerts, or go to Cubs games. This is something we used to long for when we were in the depths of winter. 

But the cicadas are back. 

After several seasons spent living in the darkness, growing, and shedding, they emerge from their exoskeleton one final time, ready to sing their triumphant song into the thick humid summer air, in search of a mate.

This song not only signals their victorious entrance into adulthood, but also the beginning of the end of their life. Adult cicadas only live approximately 4 to 6 weeks. Enough time to find a mate and complete their life cycle, passing it to the next generation. 

So with the triumphant song of the cicadas comes an unrelenting, consistent humming of anxiety and dread, highlighting the tension between the creation and ending of life.

In this way, the cicada’s song parallels our own experience of summer. As we get to this stage of the season, whispers of back to school shopping, and the return of cooler nights become louder and more pronounced. We may be transported back to the feeling of childhood summers going by too quickly, the promise of homework and late-night studying just over the horizon. 

And even though we might not be in school anymore, and even though these parts of ourselves seem far away, it’s not uncommon for this stage of summer to bring them a little closer to the surface. Similar to the Sunday scaries, the cicada’s song marks the passage of time, reminding us that death is an important part of life. 

And like the cicada, we are asked to sit with the inescapable passage of time: life and death, summer and winter, celebration and grief. 

This can feel incredibly overwhelming and confusing. It’s easy to jump to turn the volume down or push it aside and tell ourselves it’s still summer and we should enjoy it while we can. But even then, in trying to hold onto the summer we “should be having” we are ignoring an important part of the summer we are actually experiencing. 

And it goes so fast. 

Cicadas sing even as the end is looming. And gosh darn it they sing LOUD. It’s possible that their voice is full of anxious urgency as they try to find a mate before being overtaken by the inevitable. It’s also possible that they are full of joy, excited to be free of their exoskeleton and ready to pass on their life to their offspring. 

Or maybe they are just bugs.

Either way, instead of pushing the feelings aside, what if we found a way to let all of the feelings hum and vibrate without trying to quiet them. Maybe we sing along with the cicadas, allowing the tension between joy and sadness to culminate in our own loud, annoying anthem of Summertime Sadness.