Is there anything of which one can say, "Look! This is something new"? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. – Ecclesiastes 1:10

Today's Scripture Reading (January 27, 2026): Ecclesiastes 1

Life seems to travel in circles. In the 1970s, I wore bell-bottom jeans. It was the 70s, and that is the only excuse that I have for my fashion decision. I was also a junior high school student who stood over six feet tall and wore platform shoes. And the idea was that if my bell-bottoms were right, they would totally cover the tops of my boots. The style was made popular by Sonny and Cher early in the decade. But by the end of the decade, the practice had already faded, never to be seen again.

Well, maybe not. Bell-bottoms, under various names, made a comeback in the 1980s and 1990s, though they were designed primarily for women. And then, in 2006, they totally disappeared. Sharon Haver, of FocusOnStyle.com. said "It's as if all the girls wearing premium boot-cut jeans threw them away one day, and the next day began wearing skinny jeans and flats."

So, the life of bell-bottom pants lasted from the early 1970s with Sonny and Cher until 2006. Except that there are pictures of sailors wearing what looks suspiciously like bell-bottom pants in 1854. There is nothing new—everything cycles.

I also used to wear a mullet, a hairstyle described as "business in the front and party at the back." The name "Mullet" goes back to 1992 and the Beastie Boys. In 1994, the Beastie Boys released their song "Mullet Head." The style dates back to Keifer Sutherland in the movie "The Lost Boys" (1987), and, according to Keifer, his hairstyle in the film was inspired by Billy Idol. So, finally, we had something new to celebrate. Except that in 2018, construction workers in England discovered a metal figurine dating back to the time of Christ, depicting a man wearing something that looked an awful lot like a mullet. And one researcher commented that the hairstyle probably made a lot of sense in antiquity. It kept the hair out of the eyes while providing warmth and protection for the neck.

So, the Preacher argues that there is nothing new. Nothing. It has all been done before—everything cycles. What has been written has been written before and will be written again. There is nothing new under the sun.

Back in the early seventies, a new band arrived on the scene. They were actually a Canadian band, but what gave them their moment of fame was a rumor. Their first album sounded surprisingly like another band that had recently broken up: The Beatles. Furthering the mystery, the album provided no information about the band's members. The group was called Klaatu, and all the songs were written by the anonymous "Klaatoons." The band's name was taken from the science fiction movie "The Day the Earth Stood Still." And so, the rumor exploded; Klaatu was the Beatles reorganized under a different name.

But in 1978, they wrote a song that fits well with the Preacher's words about a world where nothing is new. The song was entitled "Routine Day."

So tell me what's the bloody point of playing the game?
With so much to lose yet so little to gain
You sell your life away.
Can't you see you're just a cog working like a dog

You trade your future for a dead-end job

That's full of routine days (John Woloschuk – Routine Day).

It is the cycle that keeps repeating itself. Nothing is new, and today will return in the disguise of tomorrow. Nothing has changed since the time of Solomon. But that doesn't make Ecclesiastes dangerous. It makes it real. It was like this in Solomon's time, and it is still like that. And we have to somehow come to grips with that reality, and find a way to move through this repetitive reality

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ecclesiastes 2