January is named for the Roman God Janus, who has two faces: one facing back, one forward. Janus presents the Roman preoccupation with the nature of time itself, its ambivalence. The past is treasured and celebrated, but also lamented and regretted; the future is eagerly anticipated, replete as it is with potential and opportunity, but, being unknown, it is also feared. Suspended between what has been and what is to come, we experience time with that uniquely human pain and puzzlement; it is simultaneously burden and gift. Time weighs heavy on us; and yet we recognise it, if we are wise, as the most precious thing we have.

Our new year celebrations are still under the spell of Janus. The two-faced character of this moment is highlighted in a change in the media’s messages so abrupt that you can experience it as a kind of whiplash. For several weeks we have been bombarded by a barrage of voices hectoring, coaxing, shouting. They have been telling us what we lack; that we have needs we didn’t know we had.