Month: January 2010

Snow Country

kgb

Lately I’ve gotten the images of the 1950s Japanese film Snow Country in my mind.  The past few days have had unrelenting snow, but not in the blizzarding way.  Instead it’s been a steadier, calmer precipitation, which happens to lay several inches over the course of a day.  Going outside fills me with some happiness and excitement, a lot of it to do with the feel of the crunching snow under my feet.  My shoes don’t have thick soles, so I can actually detect the sensation of the snow twisting up underneath as I step, and I get inexplicably giddy.

I’ve also been reading up on the Heian period of Japan.  It’s thoroughly fascinating stuff, if you like to read about the ridiculous habits and lifestyles of the overly privileged, and I certainly do.  As I’m reading, I sometimes think that I should really despise these people for their shallowness, but I just can’t, because when it boils down to it I want to be able to spend hours crafting the perfect letter according to the season and experience, making particular note of paper weight and color, and the proper accompaniment in the form of some seasonal flora.  How charming would that be?

2010

kgb

I’m not sure why it occurred to me to think of this, but January is the only month always preceded by the old year.  February, March, April, May, they’re all flanked by the current year.  Not that there’s much significance to it, I guess, just a funny little observation on the whole human activity of keeping time.  The purpose, more than anything, is a need for simplicity.  People’s minds just don’t work well enough (or aren’t trained to work well enough) to keep time without some occasional demarcation.  For instance, we could continually come up with a new name for the next month, eliminating the whole concept of years, but it would be cumbersome and difficult then to keep accurate records.

But I digress, it’s a new year.  So far it hasn’t been exceptional one way or the other, but it really isn’t fair to judge at the moment.  I’ll give the year 2 more weeks and reach my decision then.