***This post is based on one that I posted on New Year’s Eve, 2017. My feelings have not changed***
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
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Perhaps it is because I turned 53 57 (!) yesterday, or maybe it is because I think too much, but this morning I was in a kind of philosophical frame of mind (Sorry not sorry NDT!).
While driving to a certain undisclosed location (hint: please see picture at left **I actually went there today, but I got my drink and had it in my car, with Ginger**) I was pondering on the significance of yet another year coming by, and how grateful I am of the privilege of still be around. At that point, my skeptic-cynical-hyperrational part of my mind (don’t you look so smug, we all have, just like in the cartoons, a little angel or demon on each shoulder whispering ideas) made me think that this New Year business is all a cultural and societal construction, that today and tomorrow have no intrinsic difference in their significance—you get the picture. At that point I started laughing out loud (by the way, laughing out loud is a great feeling). I laughed because my proverbial angel or demon (you decide) on my shoulder, immediately whispered to me that one of the characteristics that make us human is precisely that we give meaning to ostensibly “meaningless” (as far as we know) events, like yet another turn around our sun.
Without such meaning, what’s left of us is a person that looks like the dearly departed grumpy cat, or like Mr. Incredible, waiting for “something amazing” to happen.
I hereby refuse to live like that.
I fully realize that more often than not, we live in a difficult world (**Just look at 2019-2021 … and counting!**). Every person has a unique life, with a unique set of problems, some waaaaaaaaaaaaay worse than others. I do not have the power to make these problems disappear, but I wish upon all my fellow beings in this world of ours the ability, from time to time at least and to the extent possible, to find significance and beauty in our lives. This attitude will give us the respite that we all need and deserve.
Happy New Year!
See you in 2022!
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