Jesse’s back for more, is it a health podcast or another joke about Isis—no, not the Bob Dylan song. He would also like to say, “peace on earth and goodwill to men,” but that’s Christmas so he was about 8 days late—we forgive you Jesse! January starts a new year, and official circumcision day, if you were wondering about whose mouth touched Jesus’ foreskin, don’t! If the Jews did it, it was probably wellness anyway. And since thoughts of wellness are everywhere on this month of new beginnings and gym membership discounts we look to the Romans, ye architects of modern civil society and the patron saints of record keeping to mark the occasion. As their god of doors and namesake of January would say, look to the past to see how you can improve your future, or something like that. In keeping with the theme of hindsight, or hang-over, being 20/20, remember, if it was really that bad for you would mankind have kept doing it for a Millenia? As your wellness friends, we’re not here to justify poor decision making, but we are here to remind you: everything in moderation, even religious devotion. This is per the Romans who were sticklers for rules and ceremony when it came to worship, lest anyone get too swept up in religious fervor. There’s a lot to learn from the Romans here, the civilization who both gave us our calendar, but only after a thousand years of tweaking because they couldn’t ever get it right, and the January 1 new year, changed to that day in 153 BC when a rebellion in what’s now Spain necessitated the government be in session two months early. Lesson one, change happens over time and incrementally and two, change sometimes happens quickly, but that’s usually because of a crisis. Here at Minor Medicine we say: change shouldn’t be hard, change should feel good! Happy 2025!

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