There seems to arrive every summer a period when the world seems to slow down.

Perhaps the extra hours of daylight play havoc with people's sense of time. Perhaps warmer days turn people sluggish. Or perhaps the brain just decides it needs a vacation.

The world doesn't really slow down, but the things that make it hectic seem less important.

You sit at work and look out the window. The sun is bright. The day is moderately warm. You could be at the beach. You could be on the golf course. You could be at a ballgame. You could be stretched beneath a tree, the smell of grass and ground a tonic, the sound of insects flying lulling, the warmth of the day letting you drift into the most relaxing sleep you've had in weeks.

Maybe those of a certain age have a built-in sense of summer as a time of play. School ran from September to June, leaving a little more than two months to do nothing else. You didn't have to read textbooks. You didn't have to do homework. Your brain didn't have to do anything but relax.

As you grew older, you might have had to work part time to supplement a weekly allowance that had seemed stingy in the first place or to save enough to buy that guitar you saw in a music shop window. But working part time still left enough of the summer vacation to play.

And then came brutal reality. After high school graduation, you were expected to give up summer as play. Some matriculated immediately into a full-time job. Others went to college. No matter which path chosen, you could not avoid the inevitable — summer as a time of play had ended.

This slowing down process also happens with the news. It seems less exciting, less pressing and, sometimes, just plain less. It's not that news slows down, but, in some areas where news arises, the newsmakers tend to get their own summer doldrums.

Congress is preparing for its summer recess — Aug. 11 to Sept. 5 for the House; Aug. 9 to Sept. 7 for the Senate. Everyone slows down as a vacation approaches, but, this being an election year — all representatives and a third of the senators are up for election — thoughts begin to shift more toward the campaign season than the legislative process.

The two likely presidential candidates are known and though they have been campaigning since the primary season ended June 3, the presidential campaign season won't really heat up until after each party's national conventions — the Democrats near the end of August, the Republicans in early September.

Even President Bush is preparing for his annual August vacation in Texas.

Besides, who wants to worry about what is going on in Washington, D.C., or the back and forth of a political campaign when they could be sipping a margarita with friends at a restaurant overlooking the ocean?

Likewise, unless the stock markets tank or the big earthquake hits or the Chicago Cubs clinch the National League title as early as Aug. 1, the news seems to be pretty much humdrum during the summer months.

There are exceptions, of course, the fires ravaging California at the moment; the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; and rising gasoline prices still command close attention. And there are people who don't get a sense that the summer has slowed things down; they are as passionate about what is going on in the world now as they were five months ago.

And, having the summer doldrums doesn't mean people won't become ferociously passionate about any major event that occurs.

It's just that, sometimes, the brain really does need a vacation. Sometimes people need to restore that sense of play they enjoyed when they were younger. They don't have to fill every waking hour with summertime activities. Stretching on a chaise longue and daydreaming, sitting on a park bench with friend or having a leisurely picnic lunch instead of fast-food burgers can be just as good.

Soon enough, the unofficial end of summer will arrive when Labor Day rolls around. The brain will wake from its summer doldrums, the events of the day will again command closer attention and people will feel reinvigorated.

So, take a cue from Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer": "Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do."

Summer seems the perfect time to indulge in whatever the body in not obliged to do.

— Richard Larsen is a deputy opinion page editor at The Star. His e-mail address is rlarsen@VenturaCountyStar.com.