’Ber is back, and really back, more back than it was last year, more back than ever since the last time in 2019, just before the world stood still the following year and the years that came next.

’Ber is back, so is beso beso (air kisses) as parties, galas, and balls return with a vengeance. Kisses are back, so are bear hugs, so are handshakes and other physical intimations without fear of spreading anything or getting other than good cheer.

’Ber, the last three letters of the last four months of the year, has over the decades become a season in itself, four months long, in the Philippines. Back in the day, it stood for brrr, an exclamation that signified a change in seasons, or more like a change in weather, a sigh of relief that the scorching summer was over and, brrr, it’s going to be cold, back when the latter part of the year meant sweater weather, our closest brush to winter here in the tropics.

’Ber then, as it is now, as it is again now, was the time to layer on clothes, to put a well-heeled foot forward, to go out there and run around, with the sun less harsh and the wind much cooler. ’Ber shares much with vrrroom, the stress on the letter r connoting activity, movement, energy, let’s go!

So now, deep into September, ’Ber is back, we’re back. No such thing as new normal, we’re the same, going fast and faster, going high and higher, being who we are and more, going, going, going.

Current science is no longer as rigid in its protection policies, though what used to be such a party pooper continues to run rampant across the globe—a daily average of 114 new cases reported in August this year in the Philippines, according to PNA, for instance, so much more in the US where, according to Time Magazine in August, “we are currently experiencing over 100,000 reported infections per day.” Infections and transmissions continue to present dangers clear and present, but with vaccination in place and still underway for the global population, the disease is no longer as severe and death from the disease is no longer as threatening, no longer crowding the hospitals. Many of us have accepted it as the new reality and catching it is now is less dangerous than chancing upon a snake in the grass or being caught in a building with a mass killer.

Risk tolerance is among the hallmarks of being human. This is how, over the millennia, we have risen from the ashes of pandemics, genocide, world wars, natural calamities like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and other catastrophes that have wiped out other earth species.

“What do you get when you kiss a guy?” asked Dionne Warwick in 1969 in the Burt Bacharach composition “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again” for the 1968 musical Promises, Promises. “You get enough germs to catch pneumonia.” But we fall in love anyway, over and over, falling and falling even if there’s a risk no one will catch us.

That’s life. Life is full of pain and sorrow and heartache and danger, but we live anyway, while we can, as long as we can, as much as we can, with as much gusto as we can muster.

And now ’Ber is back, we’re back. It’s a season full of life and joy and gratitude and camaraderie, as we run up to December, particularly Dec. 25, when hope for all mankind was born, or Jan. 1, when we can turn a new leaf and start anew.

Happy ’ber months to you and me and all the world!