WHAT'S THE MAGIC TO JULY 15 & SEPTEMBER 15?

We're an anticipatory people. Proof can be found on two particular dates. July 15 and September 15. Nobody formally assigned them, our anticipatory instincts simply selected them...!

An anticipatory culture usually has little time for remembrances of things past. That's for the old, and here everyone's young. Or at least can buy the things that make us feel that way. And so historic sites, aging homes, fading churches are usually displaced rather than preserved. It's intuitive for a country less than 300 years old, in a world with many more than 3000 years old.

Now as for these two dates -- well, simply notice what begins to happen just afterwards. Subtle at first, but irreversible thereafter.

I'm not sure what astrology says about July 15, but back here on earth chronology says it's the midway point in our June/July/August summer zone. Although merchandisers and movies still revel in summering themes, they're already anticipating the beginning of fall. Of school. Of crisper football times rather than lazy baseball times.

Your first back-to-school ads in the paper, accompanied by a chorus of young groans, is exhibit one. The earth has just subtly but surely shifted on its axis. Soon you're noticing your first shriveling leaves as the dog-days of August arrive. Congress is home on vacation having done all the harm they had time for, while your own window of opportunity is gradually starting to close.

But there's a problem here. You see, in an anticipatory society, folks sometimes plan and push so intently, they miss their todays in the expectation of their tomorrows. Not the sort of thing you'll find in the brown hill towns of Italy or the white islands of Greece. Like their three-hour midday meals, time there is spent slowly, not planned efficiently.

Not long after July 15 is that other pivot-point: September 15. By this stage in the planet's perennial twirl, what we were anticipating back in July is already well underway. School. Football. Back-to-work routines all picking up speed again. But there it is -- this speed thing in all anticipatory cultures. Those same merchandisers and movies begin to anticipate still more. You guessed it. The grand American trilogy of Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Ads, music, decorations, store aisles all start to pick up the tempo. After all, these holidays are the fun times, the family times, most of all the selling times. When they arrive, hang on to your hat. Your heart. And mostly, it seems, your money. This year-end trilogy of festivity is the one we anticipate the most. But this year lets spend it the best.