If anyone attempts to look at the calendar with a view of rationality, the eyes will cross and surrender in confusion.

The 365 days of the solar year do not divide easily by 12. It may be that 30 days has September but why shortchange February?

Equally, the Latin-based monthly names are a total sham. The ninth month begins with the seventh Latin numeral Sept, the tenth month is two months late with its numeral eight, Octo. They are followed by the inaccurate Novo or ninth bragging that it is the eleventh while the darkest twelfth month shines with the earlier numeral Dec that logically tells that it is the tenth. Oops, I almost forgot, in order to keep our desk calendar in a fixed relationship with the sun, an extra day is needed every four years.

To add to our perplexity we reorder our year in relationship to our personal and professional needs.

The teachers’ year begins in August or September. The CPA tends to use a calendar year while the Internal Revenue Service loves April 15. All horses born in the United States, without regard to the actual date of the birth, have a birthday of Jan. 1, while it is Aug. 1 in Australia.

To perplex you the more, the Jewish calendar is a solar/lunar calendar. There is an 11-day difference between the year organized by the moon and its counterpart fixed by the sun. In order to permit the moon’s year to live in peace with the sun’s time schedule, in a cycle of 19 years there are seven leap years, not of an extra day but an extra month.

Happily, most of us pay little attention to our so-well-organized chaotic calendar process. We pay particular attention to days and years that have special significance for us. Birthdays and wedding anniversaries, religious observances and holidays, national celebrations leap into our lives giving us fulfillment and satisfaction.

Personally,  I love the quiet of the seventh day, the Sabbath, to contemplate the eccentricities of our world and to find peace in the emotional security given me by knowing that it was created by our God.