We are on the cusp of what most Americans now refer to, somewhat vaguely, as “the holidays.” The phrase conjures up cold, crisp air, warm houses, and harvested fields filled with hay bales and shocks of corn with a dusting of snow, as well as evergreen wreaths, lit candles, cookies, and parties. Underlying it all is a vague but real sense that, somehow, we should be happier than we are, and an equally vague hope that, somehow, life will be different, and better, once the hol