but as arbitrary markers of time go, the new year is important because you have to remember to write a 5 instead of a 4 at the end of the year. I find this quite tricky as five and four are very similar in a dylsecix world, not to mention getting an emotional wallop over the passage of time every time you see that inexplicable 2015! What ever happened to 1978?
[Pause while I try to remember how great it is to get old … better than the alternative:
Ah, it always works!]
But while New Year’s Eve can seem unseemly, a seemingly mandatory drunkfest that lost its appeal many a year ago, the image of Janus, god of doorways, looking through a new door frame hopefully, an old man on one side and a toddler on the other, has stuck with me from some early age. And if you have to be a god of something, getting assigned doorways and time has to be pretty cool.
I don’t know how they know this, but it sounds good to me:
Janus as gatekeeper of the gates connecting Heaven and Earth and guardian of all passages is particularly related to time and motion. He holds the first place in ritual invocations and prayers, in order to ensure the communication between the worshipper and the gods. He enjoys the privilege of receiving the first sacrifice of the new year, which is offered by the rex on the day of the Agonium of January as well as at the kalendae of each month: These rites show he is considered the patron of the cosmic year. Ovid in his Fasti has Janus say that he is the original Chaos and also the first era of the world, which got organised only afterwards. He preserves a tutelary function on this universe as the gatekeeper of Heaven….
And good for him I must say!
You will be pleased to know that the Agonium of January falls on the 9th, so there is plenty of time to arrange your sacrifice, and you haven’t already blown it for the coming beanfest of a year. Today however is the kalends of the month, so get offering! You do not want to irritate a fellow who preserves as he does a tutelary function on this universe and could claim any and all of these titles, one of which would make an excellent wrestling personality … actually two of them … maybe all three: Patron of the Cosmic Year, Gatekeeper of Heaven, and best of all, The Original Chaos!
I really like that things were only organized afterwards. Maybe that is why Janus can see through time, having been able to see everything all at once before it got complicated by distance, because really that is what happened with the big bang … it all got more organized as things cooled and got further apart, separating into elements, whizzing about through space, turning into stars and planets and trees. And without distance there wouldn’t really be time to measure … although it all hinges on gravity, which controls distance but remains an elusive force, the slippery devil. But it does bring us back to this mundane earth, which we are so lucky to live on.
And so while I dislike New Year’s Eve, I am very fond of New Year’s Day and happy to make an offering to Janus on this calends of the month [apparently kalends is in the mollusk family of spelling, switching from k to c on an academic whim] in the hopes that both chaos and organization afterwards will occur, although I would like to go a little lighter on the chaos this time round the sun. So Happy Arbitrary January 1st. It couldn’t have come at a better time!
Happy New Year to all.
my wife and i stay home and cook now for New Years Eve. this year we didn’t drink anything at all. it makes no sense to start the new year feeling like crap! besides, if you have a resolution to eat better and exercise more, and you wake up hungover on January 1, then you probably have already blown it! i’m not being preachy, it’s just that i learned this the hard way, at least 10 times. yet i hope it’s OK if i attribute that epiphany to wisdom, rather than experience.
i think the Age of Aquarius begins when enough people question some very broad and basic assumptions. that’s all i got for right now.
check out this guy. he lives a few hours south of your cabin Xty. i bet he doesn’t like woodpeckers.
http://bethepro.com/large-handmade-decorative-birdhouses/?campaign_source=silverpop&campaign_medium=newsletter&campaign_id=123014-birdbutton
Way to go Badgers. Way to go Barry. Show us your moves.
http://sploid.gizmodo.com/extraordinary-pictures-of-the-most-ancient-trees-on-ear-1677066304
I did check out those birdhouses – and what a cool story about the guy. I would love to have a birdhouse like my house!
Life is returning to what passes for normal around here, and I must say for a pack-rat house we really gained some good space because of cleaning up for Christmas – and today was yard waste day and we actually got the tree out and down, something that is not necessarily characteristic. And what with the re-upholstered furniture and all it almost looks like a house. Still have a mattress on the floor of the den, that I don’t now where to store and that was a disaster last year because it stayed in the den leaning up against the bookshelf and the whole thing became a cupboard instead of an office/den.
Fascinating I am sure, but what is on my mind is that it has been a whirl in my brain and impossible to write … and now I find myself sitting on the couch, in a surprisingly tidy house with dinner burbling on the stove (a concoction of Italian sausages, leeks, peppers and marinara sauce), and a nice glass of wine in a glass that the lovely neighbour’s daughter next door that had the same due date as my middle son gave me for Christmas along with some homemade brownies she brought with her from BC, which I am also nibbling on. And I lit a fire. Let’s hope my brain can follow my body’s lead. The creature comforts are more than taken care of, so you would think the creature would be comfortable!
Holy moly – those trees are ridiculous!
seen them do that one year. oddly rough week here and mucho crappola(crapola ?) this weekend. hi all.
gotta + some Neil.
OT as usual for me and this just rolled in. 1968 i think, anyway.
No more ball of confusion! Maybe everything is utterly simple.
I have found that crapola [spell check looked up that spelling and found “crapola |kraˈpōlə| noun N. Amer. vulgar slang
nonsense; rubbish.
ORIGIN from crap and -ola, a suffix used humorously to extend standard words.]
usually comes in batches, so maybe the worst is over.