All of a sudden, 2015 is gone. I feel pretty meh about it, although I feel like I should be more hopeful for a new year or sentimental about this year passing. Technically time is just a continuum, and Jan 1st is an artificial construct of a mere subset of human civilization; there’s nothing inherently special about tonight or tomorrow morning.
But we’re always looking for a reason (or an excuse) to put meaning and significance behind things. We draw a line between Dec 31st of 2015 and Jan 1st of 2016 and say that something begins anew! We celebrate with friends or family, we pig out on food, we stay up late into the night, go to church, kiss strangers, or scream our lungs out as we watch a fancy disco ball descend. We make decisions to better ourselves, wish each other luck and blessings, and somehow create happiness out of nothing.
I think it’s interesting that so much hope, joy, and resolution can come from nothingness (albeit temporarily) for no reason other than that we people drew a line in the continuum of time and said it was special. If we can create this much hope on Jan 1st, can we recreate it on Feb 2nd? If we are indeed simply “deciding” to be so joyful tonight, can we just as readily decide to be joyful in the nights of fall? If we can muster up the resolution to start exercising, to quit smoking, to make more money, to start reading the Bible more, etc. just because the new year seems like a good time to start doing so, can any day in the upcoming year be just as good of a time to make changes in our lives?
I suspect technically, the answer is yes. But realistically, it’s hard. There’s less momentum in the world after January. Not enough “umph” among your friends and coworkers to push you when you want to start something anew in March. We see fewer reasons to be joyful or hopeful for most the year.
Probably this blog post won’t be so helpful tonight or tomorrow as it will be a few weeks or months from now. Maybe sometime in April when there’s no holiday to look forward to and things get so boring, remember that Jan 1st came out of nothing; we can perhaps make April 4th special as well. We can always make something out of nothing.
Happy New Year
Simeon