So Here We Are
Another year has past and a new one started. I'm not a big New Years' person. I don't see the point in staying up to watch the ball drop. The start of the new year is purely arbitrary anyway. Once upon a time, as the names of our last four months indicate, the start of the new year was in March. This makes more sense to me. March is the month when winter turns to spring, at least in the northern hemisphere, and spring is the season of renewal. That ties into actual human experience. But what is January 1st? A day, like any other.
I don't make New Years' resolutions. If there's something about my life I want to change badly enough, I don't wait until a special, "magical" day to start to change it. No one really does. I think that New Years serves a purpose for many people, in that it gives them pause to stop and reflect on their lives; perhaps that is why resolutions are most popular on New Years.
Do I expect that 2004 will be a better year than 2003? No, but neither do I expect that it will be a worse year. Dickens sums it up best:
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
Or perhaps T.S. Eliot:
For I have known them already, known them all-
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons
Well, perhaps I'm a wee bit melancholy.
Comments
Actually, the names of the last four months do not mean that the new year was once celebrated in March. The Romans had a calendar with ten months, starting with January, but then Julius Caesar took a few days from some of the other months and created the month of July. Not to be outdone, Caesar Augustus did the same thing to create the month of August. These pushed months seven (September), eight (October), nine (November) and ten (December) back to their present positions.
The new year has generally been celebrated around the time of the winter solstice or shortly thereafter, when the days once again begin getting noticeably longer. This is because ancient man noted the days getting shorter in the fall, and was relieved when the days began getting longer again, meaning (to them) that the sun would return and the cycle would begin once more, rather than the days getting shorter and shorter and, eventually, ending with perpetual night.
Posted by: hnumpah | January 2, 2004 08:05 AM
Okay, I stand corrected. Actually, I recline on the couch corrected. Nonetheless, the broader point of its being arbitrary still stands.
Posted by: Lesley | January 2, 2004 09:51 AM
How can you be wee bit melancholy while reclining on a couch?
Fire the cabana boy!
Posted by: Justin | January 2, 2004 04:53 PM
It has been a melancholy week or so.
"I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
I do not think that they will sing to me."
Posted by: Just John | January 2, 2004 10:25 PM
I never recline on a couch, I participate in Olympic class power lounging.
Posted by: Rick DeMent | January 3, 2004 08:13 AM