As a youth I took quite an interest in that period of Roman history running up to Julius Caesar and the years following. The period could be thought of as sort of a cusp in the development of Western civilization. And that’s how I took it. With all the callowness that more or less defines youth I marked the Ides of March in the year 44 before the common era as the actual beginning of the common era, and gave it that silly title “International Kill a Tyrant Day.”
Turns out it is a day heavy with history. The Chinese rebel Shuhan becomes emperor on this day, Christopher Columbus returns from his first trip to the Americas on this day, the Council of Trent convenes for its first meeting on this day, Andrew Jackson is born on this day, as is Lightnin’ Hopkins.
For me, all these years after my youthful infatuation with the fall of the Roman Republic, I find as the Ides roll around I still pause and recall the flow of history and the wild currents of unintended consequences.
I suppose it is good to have such in one’s life.
For me this is the moment that marks how wildly unpredictable things are, how individuals do count, if not quite as much as they might wish, and how at every choice time splits into a thousand directions of possibility…
A door closes.
Another opens.
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