Beginnings

Here we all are, rounding the bend in the first week of January. We’re wrangling with the (finally) seasonal temperatures. We’re recovering from the excesses of the holidays. Too much food, too much drink, too much spending—maybe even too much family time.

Now that the season has passed, those cheerful greetings of “Happy Holidays” and “Merry Christmas” have been replaced with another greeting that will fade in a week or two: “Happy New Year.”

January 1 is certainly the most universally recognized date for the rollover of the calendar. It has been celebrated since 45 BCE, with the inception of the Julian calendar in Rome, and brought into regular practice with the Gregorian calendar in 1582.

Of course, this is not the only time the new year is celebrated. The Chinese celebrate their new year in early February; the Thai in the spring; Ethiopians celebrate theirs in September. Both Muslims and Jews celebrate the new year in the fall. But around the world, millions of people stayed up late on December 31 to ring in 2016.

And with this date comes many traditions, amongst them the notoriously unsuccessful resolution. The practice, fairly common in this country, is an ancient one. Even the Babylonians began each new year with a goal or a promise.

There’s an allure to the idea of a fresh start. But as the year wanes, so do the resolutions. And those wishes of a happy new year are replaced by wishes of a happy new day. A much more realistic goal. And so I begin to cringe at the idea of the increasingly trivial platitude.

The people who developed Alcoholics Anonymous had a much smarter way of looking at things. Take it one day at a time.

And so I have made my own resolution. I resolve to no longer wish people a happy new year. So instead I will wish you an interesting year, full of sadness and joy. I wish you a good progression from years past. Because this arbitrary, mid-winter date should not be an interruption in the continuity of our lives.

When the year is no longer new, that should not somehow mean our goals should lose their edge or our hopes should lose their spark. We shouldn’t feel the need to wait for another spin around the sun to revisit and renew them.

I will wish you a happy day. And tomorrow I hope you have another happy day. But it’s fine if you don’t, because that’s life. I will wish you luck, and hope you overcome your obstacles and achieve your goals. May you learn to truly love yourself. May you discover new ways to appreciate the world around you—there’s an awful lot to appreciate, and most of us have no idea how.

I hope you experience love and that you feel loved. By friends, by family, by your partner. Even by a pet. But from now on, I will no longer wish anyone a happy new year.

mihal@mihalzada.com