Goings and Comings

The new year is nearly upon us. January is named for Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and endings. The name derives from the Latin word for doorways or passages.

At this moment of passage, we say farewell to trials and tribulations, as if a reset button can be pressed, putting pain and plagues behind us, though we know in our heads they remain. We say so long to the holiday season, what Dickens called that “kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely.” We wave goodbye despite knowing in those hearts of ours that we should honor the time and try to keep it all the year.

As the spirit of the season wanes and hearts are again shut up all around us, our cynical impulses are resummoned, our penchant for looking out for number one asserts itself once more. Yet we manage to see the turning of the calendar to January as a fresh start. We make our resolutions, t…