I suppose the theme of being thankful it's a new year is spoken, written and otherwise thought of to an annoying degree, however true it may be to the articulator. It's akin to a hip new song being played over and over (and over) again on the radio to the point of aural illness. Ultimately, it's mankind and Hallmark that chopped up infinite time into manageable sections, giving names to seasons, identifying every 30-odd days with a dead political figure or dubious higher power of some sort, and designating certain historical events as reason to celebrate with food, drink and gifts of appreciation.
In essence it seems we have a need to know that there is a 'slate-clearing' portion of this managed time. However, that refresh moment only goes so far. We can justify putting the past year's negative aspects behind us mentally, if we are able, but are still liable for debts, taxes and the resulting brouha for things we said out loud inadvertantly.
So am I saying the idea of the new year is a crutch? Absolutely, but it is a necessary one. Imagine talking to a paleontologist, who suggests to you that a certain species of recently-discovered dinosaur lived, to his/her best estimate and cutting-edge Carbon-14 dating techniques, an astonishing 158 million years ago. That would be the Mesozoic period, just in case some of you out there were hoping to actually garner something fruitful from this musing. 158 million years ago is something I cannot grasp. It's too big a number. There's no reference point anything in my experience can relate to, except other 65-225 million-year-old dinosaurs, none of whom I had the pleasure of ruminating with about which plants were the tastiest. That's at least a 64,995,000 year-wide gap. Putting it another way: your kid is in high school history or social studies, and the teacher is talking about present day stuff. Now he/she says, "Now just for a moment, think ahead 64,995,000 years into the future." If it's Tuesday and I'm thinking about the weekend I'm almost too far ahead of myself. Let me give you another example in reference to the need to compartmentalize time. Most of us are familiar with light years, in the sense that some of the stars we see in the night sky (if you see stars other than the sun in the day sky, that's another topic) are hundreds of thousands of light years away, and that light travels at 186,000 miles per second. I can't conceptualize that distance or speed. I hear light year and I think three things: really far, really fast and Buzz.
A light year, by the way, is 5,878,625,373,184 miles. I could write it out, but then again, I'm not getting paid by the character.
The point is, without a stop and start point, without a place to rest and catch a breath, everything blows past us in a blur. We don't have a chance to reflect on positive or negative behaviors, actions or thought processes. If we are of the mind to, the lack of rearview vision disallows, or at least minimizes the chance of changing our ways, by going to school on recent events in our lives. If we wish to learn from our past by either capitalizing on what has worked and forging ahead with a similar game plan or hitting the brakes and taking a different path, we must have a relatively recent frame of reference from which to draw on.
While we're here, I would like to add I think it's a good thing to have New Year's resolutions. Just make them realistic, helpful and achievable. Avoid ones that are more difficult to acquire. 'I vow to win a million dollars in the lottery' is one of the latter. But good luck just the same.
That's all I have to say.
