Don’t Look Back

Technically, the first day of January is just another day on which the sun rises and sets, the natural cycles run their courses, and we wake up, eat, work and play, and then go to sleep so we can get up the next morning to do it all over again. Were January merely the thirteenth month, its first day would not be terribly significant. But the opening up of a new year is a psychological cleansing of the slate for many of us. Not only do we experience special “New Year’s” events as part of the holiday season, but we make resolutions to be carried out in the year just beginning.

January is named after the mythical Roman god Janus, god of doorways — of beginnings. Janus was represented as having one head with two bearded faces back to back, looking in opposite directions at the same time.

As the calendar rapidly advances through the end of one year to the beginning of another,…