The New Year

It's the traditional greeting - Happy New Year! And very lovely it is too.

Yet it does demand we take it seriously. We tend to say 'I hope you have a Happy New Year' which seems to suggest that happiness comes from elsewhere and may, or may not, alight upon you this year if only your luck is good.

I'm the last person to disparage luck, believe me, and yet I'm also aware that the greeting could more usefully be heard as a directive: Make Sure You Allow Happiness into Your Year. It asks us to...