If seasonality is a recognition of inevitability and duration, there is also a sense of assignation in this passage: “a time for every matter,” “a time to act.” If there are seasons in which we should expect certain kinds of experiences to befall us, there are also times when certain actions are expected of us. While some of these seasons arrive without our bidding (birth, death, weeping, laughing), much of what the Teacher counsels here assumes our agency.
