Best Wishes January

January has to come to an end. I can't tell you how happy I will be to move on into February.

What do I have against the first month of the year?

Nothing, really. Nothing at all against January. Rather it's a certain annoyingly French tradition that happens in January.

In every culture graced with a calendar, a cultural tradition of wishing others the best as the new year begins. In the U.S. for instance, when the clock strikes midnight, the ball drops, and the kisses begin, we exchange "Happy New Year"'s with anybody in our near vicinity.

And then we let it be.

Maybe...just maybe, we carry over into the next day. If you wake up early enough to leave the house and see someone, that is.

In France they have another way of doing things. During the entire month of January, if you see someone for the first time in the new year, it is polite to exchange best wishes. Phone calls and e-mails also fall under the purview of this cultural practice.

When I arrived back at work on January 2, my inbox was flooded with best wishes from everyone from my co-worker 10 feet away to the accountant to the president of the company. Each time I contacted a client for the first time in the year, their replies would come back prefaced with a message like "I present to you my best wishes for the new year. All happiness and joy and good health and romance to you in 2012."

One time, a man I had never spoken to in my life began his inquiry with the longest "best wishes" I have ever encountered: Best wishes to you and your family with great health and happiness and success and the reaching of your dreams and soul-filling love and great orgasms and financial riches beyond your wildest imagination and no cancer--cancer is awful--and advancement in your company and true contentment in life. (I exaggerate but not by much.)

After the staccato beat of his best wishes halted, there was a long pause. He expected me to rip off a litany of best wishes too apparently. It would have been polite after all. A bit flummoxed I merely replied, "And to you as well." And then I waited for him to bring up his real concern.

Later the secretary helped me prepare a nice reply I could offer in reply: "And in turn I present to you my best wishes." Short and simple, but well worn-out.

At the end of this month, there is a small flurry of best wishes from the procrastinators in the bunch. There's time to extend best wishes--it's still the first month of the year.

To that I say: best wishes and good riddance, January. May you never come again until 2013, and then may you be short, warmer than this year with less rain, and filled with short, genuine greetings.

But mostly good riddance.