Sic Semper Tyrannis

It's the End of the Year As We Know It

Well, my friends, tomorrow’s the last day of the year and I think I would be remiss in not musing on something more important than “here’s some cool music.” For some reason, the last few days of the year are always pregnant with thoughts of a grander nature. We can talk about beginnings and endings or expectations, hopes, predictions…We can revisit memories of the past 365 or so days.

But you know, I’m always a little intrigued by how we all become philosophers around this time of year. Our walking-around lives are supplemented with thoughts for a week or so. There is actually a ghost in the machine. Some of us go so far as to make a pact with ourselves to do or not do things for the next 365 days. I’m intrigued with all of this because when you really get down to it, January 1 is just a day on the calendar. Of course, it’s the first day of a cycle. Duh, Mike. But what makes it any more special than, say, June 16? Why don’t people become pensive about their life circumstances and the world’s situation and decide to make changes in the middle of May?

Maybe we have this need for “tidiness.” You don’t start keeping score in the middle of a soccer game, or start reading a book in chapter 3, so why should our lives be any different? For some reason, we seem to like numerical wholeness and orderliness.

This concept of time is a funny thing. Look back on that post about Augustine if you don’t believe me. And how we measure it into days and weeks and months of past, present, and future is a complicated structure built on shaky ground. But I think we have a real need-deep, deep down in our collective unconscious, maybe, for that kind of mathematical symmetry. It only makes sense-“There’s a new number at the end of the year, better take advantage.” Something about that idea seems so right, but I obviously can’t quantify why. And around New Years’ that deep-seated longing shakes hands with our more visible, knowable desires: to be prettier, healthier, friendlier, have it all together.

That’s a lot for a soul to deal with. Pretty heavy time of year, man.

For a long time I hated New Years Eve and I hated the whole concept of making resolutions and all this talk of beginnings and endings. “There’s too much pressure to make it an ‘unforgettable night,’” I would say, “and it never is an ‘unforgettable night.” “An Unforgettable Night” sounds like the tile of a Celine Dion live duets album. For a pessimist, stoic like myself, all of that is just a nightmare. I always liked the lyric “Nothing changes on New Year’s Day” by U2.

But I must say, since the new tradition of Sweater Party on New Year’s Eve has come along, I’m a little bit friendlier to the idea of observing the New Year. There is something about simply sharing the warmth of friendship with people just as goofy if not goofier, just as nerdy if not nerdier than you that…helps. And in this life, we need help.

And why not on the exact instant that our days get a new number?

posted by Mike @ 10:12 AM