New Year's day
Jan. 1st, 2005 10:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
likethebeerIt's an interesting thing that, at least in the upper lattitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, our year begins at the start of winter, when we are most inclined to contemplate hibernating. It is this very thing that seems to propel people in the opposite direction: the desire to change things, move things like the lever that moved the world, make plans and resolutions.
I once read the reasons behind why we start our calendar at this time, instead of one of the solstices/equinoxes (personally, I would pick Dec. 21) in The Discoverers (that book by Daniel Boorstein, also accompanied by The Creators). Unfortunately, what happened w/me and that book, like so many books that explain many, many things, was that as soon as I was done that section, I couldn't remember the reasons why we do this. I am not inclined, at the moment, to seek the answer on google or wikipedia. So I'll let the confusion stand.
Anyway, I can't remember how many years ago I stopped even the pretense of making New Year's resolutions. They just seem to be a set up for failure. I stopped smoking one New Year's (1991 into 92) and lasted for a year & a half. Other than that, I've had no serious new year's resolutions. As in many things in our culture (or so it seems), resolutions have become another way to sell things. In this case, it seems to be bathing suits, diets, and plastic surgery. Fortunately, following this, there will be "white sales," followed by a lull punctuated by MLK, Jr. day, then the lead up to Valentine's Day (which I think has to be one of the most hated "holidays". Even the candy kind of sucks).
Following the decision to not make resolutions (and perhaps I don't simply b/c I am lazy/unmotivated), I decided to wish for a better year than the last. Well, after 3 consecutive years that seemed worse than the last (and this was even before 9-11), I stopped that practice as well. Don't want to get my hopes up. Of course, one thing that I have realized, from time to time, is that no matter how much I try to stop myself from hoping, in a self-protective mode that considers, "Well, if I don't hope, I won't get hurt" (an extremely immature version of the Buddhist understanding that desire causes suffering), I still hope, and get hurt.
So maybe I should hope anyway, and say what the hell. Might as well try.
Regardless of these statements, I still have no hopes or plans for this year. I could say I'll write more. That I'll clean the kitty litter box more. That I'll dress myself up in finery. That I'll clean my car more and be better at recycling. That I'll go trauling for new lj "friends". That I'll finish that essay on religion, work on the book, work on the children's book, and perhaps look at the fiction book (which I am reluctant to even open for fear that I will delete the whole damned thing). But I won't tackle any of these things wholly and entirely successfully, and I know it.
Well, the most likely thing that I will do this year is dye my hair, even if it's only temporary. So that is something.
I once read the reasons behind why we start our calendar at this time, instead of one of the solstices/equinoxes (personally, I would pick Dec. 21) in The Discoverers (that book by Daniel Boorstein, also accompanied by The Creators). Unfortunately, what happened w/me and that book, like so many books that explain many, many things, was that as soon as I was done that section, I couldn't remember the reasons why we do this. I am not inclined, at the moment, to seek the answer on google or wikipedia. So I'll let the confusion stand.
Anyway, I can't remember how many years ago I stopped even the pretense of making New Year's resolutions. They just seem to be a set up for failure. I stopped smoking one New Year's (1991 into 92) and lasted for a year & a half. Other than that, I've had no serious new year's resolutions. As in many things in our culture (or so it seems), resolutions have become another way to sell things. In this case, it seems to be bathing suits, diets, and plastic surgery. Fortunately, following this, there will be "white sales," followed by a lull punctuated by MLK, Jr. day, then the lead up to Valentine's Day (which I think has to be one of the most hated "holidays". Even the candy kind of sucks).
Following the decision to not make resolutions (and perhaps I don't simply b/c I am lazy/unmotivated), I decided to wish for a better year than the last. Well, after 3 consecutive years that seemed worse than the last (and this was even before 9-11), I stopped that practice as well. Don't want to get my hopes up. Of course, one thing that I have realized, from time to time, is that no matter how much I try to stop myself from hoping, in a self-protective mode that considers, "Well, if I don't hope, I won't get hurt" (an extremely immature version of the Buddhist understanding that desire causes suffering), I still hope, and get hurt.
So maybe I should hope anyway, and say what the hell. Might as well try.
Regardless of these statements, I still have no hopes or plans for this year. I could say I'll write more. That I'll clean the kitty litter box more. That I'll dress myself up in finery. That I'll clean my car more and be better at recycling. That I'll go trauling for new lj "friends". That I'll finish that essay on religion, work on the book, work on the children's book, and perhaps look at the fiction book (which I am reluctant to even open for fear that I will delete the whole damned thing). But I won't tackle any of these things wholly and entirely successfully, and I know it.
Well, the most likely thing that I will do this year is dye my hair, even if it's only temporary. So that is something.
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decision to not make resolutions
Date: 2005-01-01 06:30 pm (UTC),...o.0
no subject
Date: 2005-01-01 06:51 pm (UTC)sun comes up, even if we don't see it,
and it goes down, too.