The unbearable brilliance of Question 7 I’ve been jet lagged these past 16 years. For almost all of my life until 2010, the year started, with its concomitant resolutions, in September/October and ran until June/July. The year ended with the end of summer, a change in the air, the first intimations of the days closing in, the increasing frequency of damp mornings. Autumn has ever been my favorite season, not just for the soft days and comforting fading, but also for the promise of a structured week after the unsettling freedom of the summer vacation. Some of you may relate to this. Even after more than 15 years in Japan, where the school year begins in April and stutters briefly in March before launching again into a log-chute of wan activity, I have not fully adapted to the idea that this week—before second semester—is for most Japanese students and academics only an unremarkable pit stop on the way to February. Whereas for me, it is the main occasion for resolutions: this year, I wil...
