31 December 20XX+1
My Dear Lucilius:
The calendar that I keep hanging on the wall reliably informs me on this wintry evening that this is the last day of the year.
We are far beyond the main 12 pages of the original year this calendar was issued for, reduced to the smaller section at the end where 12 months are condensed down into a 3 x 4 grid. After this, there is one additional 3 x 4 grid – and then tempus incognitus.
To say this feels as if it one year compressed into five would be an understatement, given all that has transpired in the previous 12 months. Were I to still have access to the such things, I suspect that every event that tended to show up on “Likely to create stress” would be written in bold letters over the year.
It shocks me, Lucilius, that it has only been a mere 6 months six I was married, a little less than that since I marched to McAdams, and a little less than that for seeing wheat in the North. And a mere 3 months since the trial.
All of that, while managing the tasks of staying alive and keeping a community more or less together.
Pompeia Paulina asked me earlier today – as it is the last day of the old year –how I felt about the past 12 months.
I did not know how to answer, I responded. On the one hand – surely there were a great many things to celebrate, not the least of which was our marriage (even I can be taught) and the fact that we – not just us, but Young Xerxes and Statiera and almost the entire community – had survived as well.
Was I hopeful for the future, she wondered?
I had no answer for you, I responded.
How do we measure hope, Lucilius? There is no metric I am aware of, no plumb line I can drop. I can no more measure hope than I can measure love or anger, except by the outputs that it generates.
By that measurement, I have both reasons to hope – a community more or less hanging together, allies on at least one side of us, others in the Near Abroad – and reasons to despair – the knowledge that next year will likely be more difficult than this and the very real belief that we are really and truly on our own.
I confessed these thoughts to her. She sat in the waning evening light with the low orange from the burning branches illuminating her face. Maybe balancing the two, she suggested, is enough for right now. After all, given that we had anything to celebrate the year should be considered a victory.
The wisdom of my wife, my dear Lucilius, eclipses anything else I could say.
Your Obedient Servant, Seneca
(Author’s note: if some of the above incidents seem remote to the reader, they may very well feel that way. The year 20XX+1 was started almost 5 years ago in 2020. Apparently I am nothing if not slow about updates.)
The first part of this episode made me wonder what we did before printed calendars were readily available everywhere for keeping dates? I suppose calendars in some form have been around for thousands of years but probably only in limited quantities and not available to the average person. Journals perhaps? Daily newspapers is probably likely for many since there were no televisions or cellphones to stay informed.
ReplyDeleteEd the keeping of time is very important to agricultural societies.
DeleteReading the Farmer's Almanac about what DAYS the first and last expected frosts has a lot to do with planting schedules. My garden logbook has dates that I planted, when it rained and such as to determine next year's efforts.
The Mayan priesthood made a religion and living knowing the days and when the expected spring rains and other planting the crop important stuff happens.
We are so used to looking at the computer (yes even the smart watch is one, eh?) for the day and weather. Losing that is going to be a harsh re-learning exercise for those that fail to maintain a viable calendar.
Ed, I suspect (although I have no evidence of this) that this is why - especially in ancient cultures - being able to mark the Solstices was such an important event and why some fairly impressive structures were built to accommodate that.
DeleteI suspect religious or cultural cycle calendars helped as well - for example, the Liturgical calendar of the Church with its feasts and holy days and "The Twelfth Sunday after Lent" and so on.
And to Michael's point, local knowledge. Back in the day, relocating to another climate was probably quite an event as one lost one's knowledge base and had to establish a new one.
Michael, local journals (and the pre-journaling local knowledge) was key to knowing the whats and whens of planting. Having had to relocate more than once, it is interesting to learn the differences of the locations that I am in terms of planting.
DeleteThough all valid points, I was referring to something more granular, i.e. just knowing that today is Thursday, December 18 and not Wednesday, December 17.
DeleteEd keeping the dates correct with planning is critical. Even the Babylonian dried mud tablet grain accounts found had reference to loans and debts owed upon this day. Cannot do basic accounting without it. Religions need it for scheduled events.
DeleteI just addressed the aquicultural aspect with the Mayans above.
They had specific dates for religious events. I didn't use the names we use for the days, but they were named.
Ed, I suspect it would rather be like my parents when they retired: they knew specific days when the recurring activities like church, but the rest of the week was kind of unknown, other than "not church" or "not volunteer opportunity".
DeleteAnalyze despair enough to formulate plans to deal with it, hope provides a buffer to NOT dwell on despair TB, better to be a glass half full person than a half glass empty one. Seneca, Pompeia Paulina, Young Xerxes and Statiera are part of a larger community with shelter, food, self defense and maybe friends. Finding that you are alone is a test, for all of us. How do you respond? Pompeia Paulina is right, they are around to celebrate the year's end.....:)
ReplyDeleteThat is a good distinction Nylon12. Although to be fair, I am neither a glass half empty or glass half full but more of a "Is there a glass at all?" sort of fellow...
DeleteI wonder about the relationship between hope and expectations. Or for that matter, hope and faith. For Seneca, I'm thinking these things are more real than most of us can imagine.
ReplyDeleteLeigh, I think this is nicely summarized in The Stockdale Paradox. Named for Vice-Admiral James Stockdale, who was a POW in Vietnam from 1964-1973 it states "You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be."
DeleteHope keeps coming up in my writing. I am not sure why, but there must be something there.