epochs

The tendency is to think there is a magic number--a magic date, some meaningful duration of time, as if there is a formula to which we may refer to gauge our progress. Not true, but when the round numbers like New Years roll around, we like to think so anyway. It's certainly been an abrupt, well-defined year for me, with no time for evolution or adaptation, as if I was simply tossed into 2016 with no real regard for how I might emerge from the sea of time and events on the other side.

Then again, if I may swim into a metaphor and walk out, like that little fish a billion years ago who thought he'd see what that other pond over there was like, you just put one foot in front of the other, careful not to look back for too long at a time, lest you start floundering.

So when I say "happy new year," it's with a bit more sincerity than usual. The dinosaurs are coming, but that's another story.