The Word Is DENOUEMENT

This series is inspired by the "Words From
Unity" public service announcements
that ran on television (particularly in
Kansas City) in the 1970's and 80's.

If you can remember your literature classes, you may remember the teacher talking about the climax of a work of fiction, followed by the tying up of loose ends afterward -- the "denouement." That's pronounced "day-know-mah" if you read it out loud.

That is where we are right now as the new year begins. The party is over. The climax is past. The action began back on Thanksgiving Day, perhaps a little before that. Some will say it began back in October, but not for your servant. I refuse to deal with more than one holiday at a time. I won't discuss Thanksgiving until after Halloween. I won't think about New Year's until after Christmas. And after every Christmas and New Year's Day, it's the same: we are suddenly but not unexpectedly at least a little bummed out. Too many holidays in rapid succession will do that to you.

What else is there to look forward to in the next few months? Valentine's Day? Nah, and especially not if you're single. The next real event holiday for many people is Easter, or maybe Mardi Gras. But they're not Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's.

I was ready for Christmas 2016 back in June and July, when we were going through a depressing, discouraging display of inhumanity, of people shooting up nightclubs, cops shooting people, and people shooting cops. Please get here December, I thought, so we can remember how to care for one another again. We shouldn't have to wait another year for that.

So here we are in the denouement. And we are feeling a bit lost and hoping the new year doesn't leave us wishing for New Year's Eve faster than it should.