Year's End

Published: Dec. 29, 2020, 11:09 a.m.

The year is ending and it is a time for solemn contemplation. But what is a year? Our calendar years are artificial, human constructs. So, too, are our weeks and months—arbitrary divisions of time that were devised over the course of human history for various organizational purposes-notches in the hieroglyphics of ancient civilizations and up to the present.