What the Last Weeks of Summer Can Offer
This article reflects on the cultural tendency to rush toward autumn, represented by early pumpkin-spice marketing, and encourages readers to appreciate the remaining weeks of summer. It suggests finding small moments of joy and connection rather than focusing on the pressure of seasonal transitions.
Why it matters
It highlights the psychological impact of consumer culture on our perception of time and seasonal well-being.
The early onslaught of pumpkin-spice products can make it easy to forget what’s so special about the season we’re in now.
NurPhoto / Getty August 15, 2026, 11:22 AM ET Share Save This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.
“Summer always overstays its welcome by about a month,” my colleague Elizabeth Bruenig wrote last week. “After the Fourth of July, which has its charms, nothing but a stretch of relentless heat lies ahead, reaching toward Labor Day, and I begin to yearn for fall.” That yearning is reflected in American consumer culture: “By mid-August, grocery stores are stocking their shelves with autumnal goods—pumpkin-pie Pop-Tarts, cinnamon-maple Frosted Flakes, pumpkin-spice cinnamon rolls in pressurized cardboard tubes.”
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