It is the beginning of July. Summer. Time to enjoy the sunshine. Even Gurdeep Pandher of the Yukon is out wondering at the midnight sun. We need to slow down – to stop and smell the roses.

Of course, this only applies if you live in the northern half of the oblate spheroid. If you're on the flip side, adjust accordingly. Still, Willem appears to be enjoying the weather there.

Back to musing about summer. The nice thing about it when we were kids was the general lack of responsibility. Sure, farmers were farming. Birds were busy nesting. But we lived in the suburbs. The most anybody would ask us to do was wash the car or a few windows. Otherwise, we were free to read, play piano ten hours a day if we wanted, go bowling with our friends (the alley had a/c), or hang out at the pool. Also to eat ice cream and watermelon. It was nice.

Somebody, however, has violated the natural order by trying to make everybody think in midsummer. This should be illegal. Folks: garbage in, garbage out, doesn't apply only to computers. It's also true of politics and other forms of mental weightlifting. So the idea that people everywhere are having elections this summer, or campaigning heavily, is just worrisome. Nobody wants to think about world events at these temperatures.

Okay, I will now stop to acknowledge the fact that real and serious things are going on in the world. Things that require mature responses, and require them urgently. That wars, humanitarian crises, and climate emergencies aren't going to wait on our convenience.

And then I will move on, because you know as well as I do that the politicians are going to do their level best to avoid talking about those things. That they will, as usual, focus on artificially-generated peripheral 'issues' designed to endear them to their voting bloc. Just as a certain religious denomination spent its summer convention this year ferociously arguing about – checks notes – a 4th-century-CE controversy about christology. I wish I were making this up. The fact that most of the delegates to this convention had probably never heard of this ancient controversy and couldn't pronounce half of it just made it funnier – and sadder, as did the horrified responses of the other flavours of religion.

For the record, I believe they should have been praying for world peace, talking about how to feed the hungry, and discussing other things they were told to do by their founder. That guy, curiously, never said a mumbling word about where he fit into the tripartite division of heavenly powers. Maybe spend less time debating the organisational chart of a committee that's above your pay grade, preachers, and do more networking in the love-your-neighbour department? End of sermon.

So. Why do I think, with all the terrible things going on, that we ought to bring back Summer Slowdown as a habit? Because we all need to stop and think for a bit. That voice in your head that says, 'Hey, wouldn't it be a good idea if we. . . ?' can't shout over all the interference. Turn off the phone. Listen to that voice – instead of arguing about which office it 'proceedeth' from.

My suggestion? A good way to do this is to watch a good movie.

Not just any kind of movie. Not the kind with chase scenes in it. Or fight scenes. Or tense courtroom drama. Or torrid love scenes. Not the kind that feature your favourite role-model actors and matinee idols to moon over. And certainly not the kind that offer pseudo-solutions to problems in handy, bite-sized increments.

In other words, nothing Hollywood. Or Bollywood. Or Ealing Studios, for that matter. Probably not anything BBC.

No, what you need to cleanse the brain and let the wisdom seep in is a film that sneaks up on you when you're not looking. One that gives you pause and then hits you between the eyes. One where the meaning is to be found in the cracks. A movie that isn't about nostalgia or patriotism or anybody's agenda.

Ideally, these movies should be easy to find and hopefully, free. I can't promise that. But I'll make a short list here. Then, if you find anything in the line I've mentioned, you can add your recommendations to the bottom of this page.

Summer Mindfulness Movies

• Godspell. You don't watch it because it's religious. You watch it because the funny 70s people and their music will make something go pop! in your mind. It's not about the Nicene Creed, folks: it's about love.
• Harold and Maude. Yes, trigger warning: it's about suicide. Sort of. Certainly as a plot device. But it's a very joyous film. It will make you laugh. It will also let the light in the cracks, as Leonard Cohen said.
• Daniel (1983). Careful! Not any of the cartoon religious movies with the lions in. This one is about the Rosenbergs. And Peakskill. It has Paul Robeson music in. Trust me: it will move you. (Maybe it will help you vote, who knows?)
• The Big Empty (2003, starring Jon Favreau). Again: not any big-budget thing you've seen with that title, but the one the guys shot on weekends at a truck stop in California. And then Sean Bean flew over to play the alien cowboy. If you have never seen this before, prepare to enjoy. If you have, watch it again: it's a zen experience. It also raises some pretty cool questions about reality.
• By Dawn's Early Light. This one's free on Youtube. It isn't restful unless you like contemplating manmade apocalypse. And it does have a fight scene in it. And a chase scene, sort of. But mostly, it will take you out of your reality and make you think. I say it's worth it.
• The Horn Blows at Midnight. This free version is a tv special. There's a longer film: get it if you can. Jack Benny's movie was a flop at the box office: he made a running gag out of that. But it was never a bad film, just ill-timed. Try and make an antiwar film in 1945, I dare you. Anyway, there's also a radio version on Youtube. They're all a bit different.
• If all else fails and you can't 'come over all sidereally-minded', try listening to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, courtesy of the Internet Archive, to whom be all praise. Even if you know it by heart, listening is as good for you as petting a cat: it will lower your blood pressure and – unlike the cat – is guaranteed not to cause bleeding from sharp claws¹.

Dmitri Gheorgheni

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