Long time followers of this blog know that I am not a huge fan of January. Actually, now that I think of it, they probably don’t. I haven’t yet mentioned my distaste for the cold, cerebral 31 days that try to pass off as a legitimate month named January.
Let me try again. . .
Long time and new followers of this blog might be surprised to know that I am not a huge fan of January. It is cold, bleak and miserable and it seems all the more so because it follows the festivities of the Holidays. December gives us Christmas lights and candy. January gives us obesity and failed New Year’s resolutions. January is also the month most Starbucks finally run out of the Pumpkin Spice Latte syrup, so January has that against it too.
With that said, over the last two weeks I have watched an entire foot of snow melt off of my lawn. The temperatures have risen to above 50 degrees. The sun has come out and the days are getting longer.
I was thinking about all this yesterday and it suddenly occurred to me that February, unlike its predecessor, is a perfectly adequate month.
For one, the Roman Emperors, Julius and Augustus, both stole days from February and added them to their namesake months. This makes February the abused and bullied underdog. And everybody loves a good underdog.
Boy did February get its revenge.
First, February added one day to its calendar every four years just to throw everyone off.
Then February created a holiday for groundhog’s. Why you ask? So that February could taunt people with the hope of Spring long before Spring actually arrived. It was brilliant.
Valentine’s day is an adequate enough holiday too. It celebrates. . .candy hearts. . .I think? Still, everybody likes chocolate and sugar. They certainly beat the hot dogs typically associated with July and August.
February also has “President’s Day” which is a little bit superfluous given the excess of patriotic holidays but still, a free Monday off from school to go skiing on the first of the Spring powder isn’t all bad.
And let’s not forget that after a bleak, festivity less January, February gives everyone one last taste of Autumn by holding an epic football match played in front of 150 million people complete with ridiculous commercials (which rival the absurdity of Christmas ones) and a half time concert with fireworks stolen right from your July celebrations. Take that Julius!
But then to top it all off, February also was the month both my children were born. Oh and my father, without whom I wouldn’t be alive. In fact, my children are probably why I suddenly remembered that February exists instead of doing what I used to do, which was tell everybody “It’s still January” for 28 extra days.
With all that said, I think it is pretty clear that February is like Liam Neeson in Taken or Mel Gibson in Payback. The month was down but it wasn’t out and boy did it bring out the groundhogs, footballs, candy hearts and baby children to exact its brutal revenge!
And everybody loves a good comeback revenge story.
I’m not sure if you agree with me or not but either way, I think we can all agree there has to be a sermon in this month somewhere or probably exactly four of them since February can’t have 5 Sundays, unless it is a leap year.
Go-Before Grace 