Who cares what the calendar says? Happy New Year!
We don't need to wait for January. I say a new year has just started.
The sweltering days of summer are gone. Memories of the visit to the beach, to Disney World and to grandmother's house are fading fast. The last morsel of leftover potato salad from the Labor Day picnic has been eaten. The scent of autumn is already wafting through the air. Classes are starting at elementary schools, high schools and universities from Hartford to Honolulu, from Juneau to Jacksonville.
As F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in “The Great Gatsby,” often cited as the great American novel, “Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.” Yep, it's the start of a new year.
From the time we waddle off to kindergarten at age 5, we're trained to believe a new year starts with the first day of school. By the end of 12th grade, the cycle of the school year has been imprinted on our impressionable brains. If and when we have children, it all floods back.
My own life has come full circle. Seven years ago, my wife and I returned to campus life. In the cafeteria and around the dorm, we speak to fresh-faced undergrads anticipating new challenges, both academic and personal. As Dr. Seuss wrote: “If you keep your eyes open enough, oh, the stuff you will learn! The most wonderful stuff!” (I must admit to a twinge of envy.)
It is indeed the time for new beginnings. The 105th National Football League campaign is just kicking off. Speaking of campaigns, I recently came across a 2016 piece by columnist Dahleen Glanton headlined: “The real presidential campaign begins after Labor Day — God help us.” That sentiment seems just as appropriate this September in Trump's third run for the presidency as in his first.
Some of the ancients did have it right. The Assyrians, Egyptians and Phoenicians all believed the year started in what we now call September. For Jews, Rosh Hashanah, literally “the head of the year,” usually falls in September (but in October this year). That starts a 10-day period of contemplating the past year and deciding how to do better in the next.
Having the new year begin in January is arbitrary. Pope Gregory XIII moved it there for Catholic countries in 1582. Only in 1750 did the British parliament pass a law that shifted the start of the year in the 13 colonies to Jan. 1 from March 25.
I'm not such a cockeyed optimist to call for any kind of federal legislation to again reset the year's start date. We cannot count on Congress for timely passage to feed hungry children, to defend the borders or to support an ally under attack, so for this? Not a chance in a million. Nevertheless, even without action from Capitol Hill, we can continue to treat this time of the year as the season to embark on new voyages.
A favorite quote from the monk and theologian Thomas Merton inspired the title of my novel “A Fine and Dangerous Season,” which of course was set in the fall. He calls the time of year when school starts, “a fine and dangerous season in America. It is dry and cool and … you are full of ambition. It is a wonderful time to begin anything at all.”
Amen.
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