Why we love January!

Said no one ever. I legitimately wanted to make it a "5 reasons why..." if for no better reason than to force me into overanalyzing the circumstances and perhaps fool me into looking at the month in a different light. But there is no light - only darkness; 31 days full of foreboding, and empty of purpose. Not that I'm so malleable that I need calendar holidays to give me a sense of purpose, but after 3 solid months of festivities (5 if you start getting spooky in August), the bleak reminder of existential monotony is like a brick wall: back to school, back to life, keep runnin' up that hill. So alas, I could not think of a Top 5 -- I struggled to think of one that wasn't just some abstract optimism about how quickly the month seems to fly by and how we'll all "get through it" - that's no way to live. So instead we're left with some observational meanderings that may or may not be as pointless as January itself. 

Honestly I'm only ever waiting for Summer, and Autumn is packed with enough organized cheer to distract from the reality that it's over and not coming back for the longest possible time. Now it's Winter and there's nothing -- nothing but movies: cold, bleak movies that have no other affiliation apart from their seasonal setting. That's a lengthy and predictable list that I've published on Letterboxd - mostly Crime Dramas and Thrillers but all appropriately chilly, and like January itself they can last you all the way to Spring. There's also a weird mental list I keep of home videos I received as Christmas gifts over the years and now I just associate with Winter months; M*A*S*H, Lost in Translation, and Apocalypse Now Redux may not put many in a frigid frame of mind but I typically save a rewatch for around now. At any rate, the point is to stay home; avoid the elements and feed into that cabin fever - there are no more stores and the theaters are filled with the garbage that the studios couldn't wait to dump. Even society knows that nothing good can come from this flavorless popsicle. 

They make it so damn easy to take the pessimistic approach and admittedly I fall for it more often than not. Though to be fair a lotta bad luck floats my way during these winter months -- and frankly I wouldn't have it any other way; no one wants to go to a funeral in Summer or let some car trouble ruin their Halloween. If we're all pinned down in this purgatory, I say sweep the floor while we're here, it can't get any more tedious. And I could make the argument that that's an optimistic take: utilize this pointless period of time to wash your sins and clean your closet because you're not missing a damn thing. 

But I can go harder than that. Since this month offers no structured (or even causal) causes for celebration, a more confident person could approach this gloom as a glob of clay, ready to be molded into whatever they like. I don't know if it's a subconscious attitude to combat post-Christmas letdown, but I always welcome the refreshing freedom of not being shackled to the rigid rituals of some Holiday Season; "You mean I can watch any movie and listen to any music I want?" But perhaps therein lies the point of this month - this month that begins a new year; maybe the point is to shed the routines and the comforts of familiarity. Maybe, once in a while, we should break free from our roots and create new experiences, new memories, new traditions, new nostalgia. So while there's nothing else going on, maybe now's the best time for that. 

- Paul