“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

So wrote the Spanish philosopher George Santayana in Reason in Common Sense, the first volume of his The Life of Reason.

Condemned to repeat. The last year in Suffolk has seen its share of good and bad. Repeating some things, such as opening great new dining and entertainment venues like the Main Street Jazz Restaurant, which opened its doors last January, could be a good thing.

Repeating other things, such as the senseless murder of a Suffolk teen, well, obviously, no one wants to see any more such tragedies.

As you might have noticed on the front page, starting today we are taking a look back at some of what has happened this past year in our fair city.

Today’s paper features the year’s first quarter, Friday’s edition will cover April, May and June, Saturday will bring July through September, and Sunday finishes the retrospective with October through Dec. 31.

This effort, of shuffling through every newspaper from the past year and pulling highlights from the top stories, is meant to give us all a chance to reflect on what we and our fellow Suffolkians went through in the last 12 months.

Some could gain perspective – the realization that life is short and precious. A year is gone in the blink of an eye, yet so much can be accomplished in those 365 days when one really tries. But much, too, can be lost in that time.

We are coming up on a fresh new year, but that does not mean this nearly finished one should be pushed to the far corners of our memories. After all, what we could be condemned to repeat might not be worth repeating.