January might well be the cruelest month. Stark, cold, and dark. They say the longest journey begins with the first step, and so it is that the month of January presents the first few steps on the long journey of a year.
It’s a hard month for some. The lack of daylight wreaks havoc with the senses and can make it difficult just to function. I know some people who just want to hibernate at this time of year, to just hide under the covers until the sun and warmth return. Another Christmas is long past now, and that seems strange—the season of light and fellowship, gone in the blink of an eye. Nothing to do, it would appear, but to plod on through the dimmest days and do what needs doing.
But I choose to see January in a different light. For one thing, the days are actually getting longer now, with the winter solstice several weeks behind us. Not that I don’t find it a tough month. In some ways, I do. But mostly I equate January with newness. It’s a time to start over, to continue what we began last year, but also to get another chance to get it right. If things went horribly wrong or even slightly astray last year, especially towards the end, now is the time to start in the right direction, to make amends.
When I was growing up Catholic in rural Newfoundland, we might get that same feeling from the strange ritual of going to “confession”. You’d enter the confession box with a litany of sins on your lips and you’d spill them all to the priest as if he could actually forgive you. Then you’d leave the box (like a hockey player after he’s put in his five minutes for fighting), feeling renewed, cleansed—going forth to “sin no more,” as the priest would say.
Well, sinning no more is a nice idea, but we’re human and likely to falter eventually and often. And, of course, I really think the idea is that you really need to forgive yourself. No one else can do that for you. If you gained twenty pounds or lost the game for your team, or just got a "B" when you really could have gotten an "A," just let it go. There's no other way to move forward.
There’s something I like about January. According to one source, January is named for the Roman god Janus (Ianuarius in Latin), and the Latin word "ianua" which means "door." Janus is the god of the doorway, and so January is the door to the year (http://wiki.answers.com/). I like that way of looking at it, of entering the year through a door, looking around a strange, new room filled with possibilities. You see, it's really nearly impossible to enter a new room without leaving an old one behind.
Reminds me of all those home makeover shows on telelvision these days. Got an ugly room or a crappy old house? Just fix it up like new—some paint and materials, lots of time spent, and there you go: all new again. Just move that bus, enter through the front door, and it’s “welcome home, family, welcome home.”
So that’s how I see January—move the bus and welcome to a brand new year. The possibilities are endless.
To my new students this semester, in English 1101 and 1080: welcome. I hope you’ll find the room to your liking, but as with most makeovers, it all depends on what you put into it.
If you didn’t do so well last time, then figure out where you went wrong and resolve to fix it this time. For the sake of four months, it’s worth it. If you’re doing 1080 for the second time, then at least you’re giving yourself another chance—a rarity in life. I’m here to help, but only if you’re willing to help yourself.
For those of you doing the course for the first time (which is the vast majority), I hope to make the journey a good one for you. Again, that depends on you, largely. I intend to enlighten, entertain, education, rant and rave, provoke, prod, and muse aloud on a fairly regular basis—whatever it takes to help you get something out of this course, whether 1101 or 1080. And I hope you'll do the same. It’s not just about the literature, of course because literature—good literature, that is—is most often about life. And it doesn’t get any more serious than that.
But as Oscar Wilde once said, “Life is too important to be taken seriously.”
Happy new year, and welcome to the show.
GC
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