The value of a threshold is innumerably important — they impart a feeling deep within us - one innate to the human condition.
The idea of liminality is one of thresholds (in fact, that’s literally what the root means in latin). Liminality as a term was originally coined to describe the middle part of a rite of passage (or otherwise a transitional period).
Anthropologist Victor Turner noted that subjects experiencing liminality were “betwixt and between“. In other words, they no longer belonged to their old social cohort, but had not yet been incorporated into the identity of their new cohort. Liminality exists as a sort of limbo, where no clear purpose exists, and you have no choice but to just kind of hang out.
The period of time between Christmas and the start of January (named for the Roman deity Janus, the god of beginnings, gates, and transitions) is one of the strongest examples of liminality that we consciously encounter.
Liminal periods are usually marked by a distinct sense of restlessness or unease, and every year you’ll find many people in a sort of disoriented haze, feeling as if time were not real this week.
I find myself feeling this way too, and doubly so now that I have a job. It is quite a strange experience to have to go into your empty office and get your work done during this time.
Returning to work/school after new years imparts on me the particular feeling of walking out of a cave into blindingly bright light. I’m not sure why this image comes to mind, but it always does.
I don’t think people are really “made“ to handle a lack of purpose. We always had one in the past (survival), but the only real struggles that we experience in the western world are borne from physical, spiritual, or intellectual lassitude.
Now more than ever we are forced to create (or find) our own purpose in life. When a lapse in that purpose arises, it seems that these weird psychological phenomena tend to bubble through.
This year we are striking out into uncharted territory, with no idea what the future holds — we are entering year 3 of an indefinitely long liminal period. As Dante mentioned in his Inferno, the way out is through.
Feel free to interpret these words as you see fit, but keep in mind that nobody willingly surrenders their power over others.
The Romans in their infinite wisdom believed that the beginning of anything was an omen for the whole of it — so as we cross our threshold into the new year, I want to take this moment to wish all of you a happy new year — may your 2022 be one of your best years yet.
Cheers my friends, and see you on the other side 🥂