Happy New Year!

I have been really sick with the flu the last few days and so unable to run as I would like.  But I did go outside to get some fresh air sometimes and as I walked around the yard I noticed the first crocus buds poking their yellow or purple heads out of the ground.  After coming back inside,  I glanced at the calendar and was again reminded of our it's obvious imperfection.  I think that the New Year starts on the wrong date.

The new year should start at the beginning of spring when the north world awakens from it's long cold sleep.  It makes sense then to me to start the new year on March 1st.  This is when the days start to warm and when hope returns for the promise of summer.  New life emerges from the decay of autumn and the iciness of winter.  I see my neighbors venturing outdoors, perhaps in shirtsleeves and exchanging "hellos",  reconnoitering the lawn and pulling a few weeds along the way.

I was outside for only a short time.  The walk was a weak substitute for the run I wanted.   Inside, the calendar hanging on the wall seems strangely out of balance.  Surely this should  be the beginning.  Everything around me tells me that this is day one.  Even the calendar itself seems to demand a shift.

It's so simple and natural, move March to the front.  Let all the heavymonths with their long names and weighty suffixes  settle to the bottom of the calendar!  Starting with September and staying through to February, let these brutes provide the ballast to carry the rest of the year.   Let the lighter months rise to the top and start the year with aptly named March.  

But the calendar's face offers an even more compelling reason for this natural realignment,  and with no offense intended toward Pope Gregory,  one quick glance at our new structuring and it becomes so clear;  septem means seven and the month now sits in pristine place.  So too with October being the eight month and the rest, each now sitting naturally in their rightful spot.  Schoolboys across the globe, who now puzzle over our current anomalous  positioning of those four months, could stop scratching their heads and get back to work.

Are we done yet?  Not at all!  Leap Year!  Yes, along with this shift from our current imperfection comes the logical place to synchronize our calendar with the heavens every four years.  When you try to fit a round sun into square calendar something has to squeal and so what better day to do it than  on February 29th,  now the last day of the year!!  

These are all good reasons for making the change I think.  And with all the renovations that President Obama is making in Washington,  maybe I'll write and give him my suggestion.  Hell, crazy bastard might just do it!  But the best reason of all to start the new year on March 1st is what I saw when I walked outside and those little crocuses heads were bravely poking out of the ground.