The J Months

"But February made me shiver
With every paper I delivered..."
--Don McLean "American Pie" (who surely meant January)
It's cold and it's getting colder
It's gray and white and winter all around
And oh I must be getting older
All this snow is trying to get me down.
--John Denver "Winter"

Canadian Geese, like battalions at Normandy
The "J" months - January, June and July - are the most authentic of seasons, the trueness towards which autumn and spring can only point to like calendric John the Baptists. All other months are promissory notes of future cold or warmth, full of the lukewarmedness that the Scriptures warns against. In winter and summer there is the feeling of arrival.

The 'j' in the month names mimic the 'g' in genuine. We are living right now in the dead heart of winter, feeling the quintessential experience of winter just as in June and July we experienced the very essence of summer.

Can we accept the climatic seasons as well as the seasons of our lives, i.e. youth & age?