January 1

Janus, Roman god with 2 faces one, that looks forward the other to the past and I wonder, in this, is he a lot like us? January 1st, in our calendar it's a brand-new beginning a renewal, celebrated and welcomed with partying, the eve's robust revelry... But I chuckle at the symbolism the artist's depiction of the former year as an old man, as Father Time, bent with a wispy white beard and his stepping aside to the advent of a diaper-clad infant symbol of the new... And I think of traditions of grapes and of brooms sweeping clean (in this part of the world) and the ham, deviled eggs of my childhood. (echoes of Eastern Europe) I see the New Year as epitomizing promise, a exuberant wish fullness even midst winter's cold grip.