Arizona

 

It’s always taken me a while to get good at writing the proper date when a new year comes. I only write a handful of checks per year - to my cleaners and the guy who aerates my lawn. When I do, I tend not to THINK about what year it is. My hand just goes on autopilot. It could always be worse, of course. I could be living in Ethiopia. In the year 500 A.D., the Catholic Church recalculated Christ’s birth year. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church didn’t. So, nearly everyone on the planet calls this year 2023. In Ethiopia, it’s seven years ago. Or possibly eight, because their year begins on our September eleventh (September twelfth on leap years). Even though Ethiopia lies slightly above the equator, somehow September is the beginning of their spring. Is your head spinning yet? The current year in Lebanon is 2077. And in Thailand, it’s 2565.