From 2012 To 2013

Dec. 31, 2012, 11:24pm - Outside the noise of revelry is getting louder, the pauses between booms are getting shorter. I’m checked in at a condotel in QC. Here is where I’ll be when the old year gives in to the new. D is with his family in the province. And for several years now our family celebrates New Year during lunch time on January 1.

Online, my FB and Twitter friends are taking stock of the year that was, while expressing hope for the year that will be. It’s understandable. People make a big deal of endings and beginnings. When I was younger I too made a big deal of the New Year. I was very conscious of the clock striking 12, as if there was an invisible barrier that separated not just the years but also past mistakes and future goals. Resolutions had to be made, the old giving way to the new.

But as the years piled up, my attitude changed. It also helped a lot that, thanks to cable news, I can actually watch major cities throughout the globe celebrate the New Year one after the other. Time isn’t as clear-cut. The world is round. Life moves in circles and cycles. And the past has a way of informing the present as we stumble our way into the future. Change can happen in an instant, but real, long-lasting change echoes through time.

Have a Happy New Year.