And Another Thing

LEARNING TO LOOK BOTH

BY TEDDY ALLEN

INancient Roman myth, Janus is the god of beginnings and endings, the god of duality. Most often when you see him in artistic creations, he has two faces, one looking to the future, one looking to the past. ways

You could actually call Janus “two-faced” back then and he wouldn’t think twice. If another Roman mythical god caught

Janus talking behind his back, the proper insult was actually

“four-faced!” Roman mythical gods would pull out the heavy artillery in a heartbeat.

It is accepted that the month of January, a time to be both reflective and resolute, was named after the mythical Janus.

Like him, we can look both ways at the same time. Been doing this for centuries.

Surely, if you’ve lived long enough, you’d agree that a penny saved is a penny earned. Yet it’s also suggested we live each day as if it is your last. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. But, out of sight, out of mind. Clothes make the man. But … you can’t judge a book by its cover. There is an honest way of looking at contradictory beliefs, of accepting the value of the opposite way of our thinking, if for no other reason than to make us continually examine our own. If you haven’t noticed, there seems to be lots of people yelling at each other these days. We are losing the art of listening, and the art of thinking. Each demands our attention and doesn’t happen on its own. Consider that there is value in a paradox. There is value in learning to look both ways. At the same time. The notion was so difficult that it at first evaded me, as “new math” once had and as the NFL’s overtime rules do today. It would have passed me by completely had not a fellow pilgrim explained it so logically, so soundly, and so simply. Can you look both ways, both forward and backward at the same time? Janus could. There are evils that must be opposed. (Hitler comes to mind. And acid rock. The Houston Texans.) But naturally, I was reminded by my friend that most normally, we all want the same thing, have the same desires. There is unity in moving forward toward that common goal, despite our differences. With a focus on compassion, making that the basis of our faith, the light on our collective journey, unity is possible, even in our disagreements. Shreveport voters have elected a new administration. Maybe we can get back to civil discourse if we understand that we can look both ways at the same time. We can live freely in the paradox that to lead, we must serve, and that to live, we must die to ourselves.

In a melding of all those opposites, there’s room for a discourse that’s compassionate and healthy. And mutually beneficial. We just have to remember. It’s like teaching an old dog the old tricks again. We can learn a bit from Janus, that hard-to-buy-a-hat-for stud of olden days. Unlike him, I just have the one head, but I can use it for good, make sure and keep it filled with common sense. I can resolve to do better. I’ll bet Janus did. His resolutions at the start of the new year were likely, “I will finally go back to the eye doctor this year, even though they charge me twice for my co-pay.” Or, “I’ll obey my mom and remove my hat, both of them, when I go inside this year.” Maybe … Maybe he did. And maybe he made one of the hardest resolutions of all to keep, which is to look at and act on what is immediately before us. That’s tough to do when you place yourself forever in charge of staring at the two terrible eternities of yesterday and tomorrow.

Instead of staring at the past, we can study and learn from it, imagine a future forged by compassion, and live to make it so in the moment we’ve been given. Here’s looking at us. Hope this is our best year yet.

Teddy Allen is an award-winning columnist and graduate of Louisiana Tech, where he works as a writer and broadcaster.