It is dark outside, a combination of the shortest day and a deep, mystical fog. The usual 8 hours and 41 minutes of daylight we can expect has been snuggled under what feels like a ground-hugging cloud, akin to being tucked under a warm blanket.

This is the end of the year traditionally. The new year should begin at Solstice, as is the ancient European tradition, just as the day begins at midnight. The only reason it doesn’t is that the Romans used a calendar, the Julian, that was off a bit by the time Pope Gregory XIII got around to revising it and everything moved ten days. No matter. The world since the Renaissance has always been what we decree, not what we see.

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