Arch of Janus / Forum Boarium, Rome / Photographer: Enrico Fontolan/World Monuments Fund

“Hello, Janus, my old friend.”

Only three more months until the end of my fifty-two-year teaching career and questions occur to me every day. Some are prosaic, simple pains in the posterior, like, “How in hell am I going to vacate my office in less than a month?” Or, “What will it be like to sleep in Tuesday and Thursday mornings?” — rather than catching a bus at 7:00 a.m. for campus. There are more important issues, such as activating my retirement account with TIAA and slogging our way through the transition to Medicare. It’s going to be interesting and much of it will be played out here every few days, I suspect.

Perhaps the most difficult matter is this: “Will my past have a future?” What is to become of the Agincourt Project in the years remaining to me and following? The web is such an ephemeral (non)place. URLs among my bookmarks very often return a big “404”, telling me the site no longer exists at that address and, probably, at none other. Agincourt’s future in a matter of personal concern.

Does the past have a future?

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