Times Change...

Times Square mid 1930s

I'm writing this blog on New Year's Day, 2019, and I have to confess that for most of my adult life I've considered New Year's to be a vastly over-rated event.  It always seemed to be something of an afterthought to the more involved and elaborate Christmas holiday.  And the cynic in me liked to note that after the 'big countdown' was done, the next morning would dawn and life would basically be exactly the same, with perhaps a nasty hangover to cope with as a negative kick-off to a new year.

But there is something important to it, which perhaps explains its enduring appeal.  It's a marker...a chance to stop and reflect...to acknowledge what has come before and take stock of where our lives are at.  A chance to evaluate where we've been and vow to do better going forward.  A chance to simply celebrate our abundant yet often unappreciated riches.  And if not for this particular (and arbitrary) flip of a calendar would we ever take a pause en masse to do all that?

The one constant in life is change.  A dramatic illustration of which is provided by comparing the two pictures of the Times building below, separated by a little more than a century.  That's a short enough span of time that an individual person could have lived through every year of the building's metamorphosis.  And presumably annually raised a toast to the relentless advance of time.

On this particular holiday we fear neither change nor the future.  We literally lift our spirits in acknowledgment of it.  And even make our resolutions in a vain attempt to affect the course of it.  What better time to do that than when one chapter ends and a fresh one begins?

Happy New Year's everyone...may you have peace and prosperity in 2019!