Hope for a New Year



Here I sit, drinking my morning coffee, looking out the window at a cold, wet, dreary last day of 2020. To anthropromorphize the situation, 2020 is making no effort to make us feel sorry for its passing by giving us a beautiful day. (Even though I know full well that somewhere on this marvelous planet there is the most magnificent day.) I know that we need days like this, but that doesn't change the fact that such dreary days do nothing to help reduce the depression and anxiety manifest by an entire nation. It's hard enough to deal with the ills of this nation on a beautiful day. Thankfully we all know that nature does not have human characteristics, so we can't attribute such a day to nature punishing or getting even with us.

I've never been one to pay a lot of attention to New Years Eve. In my 74 years I can probably count the number of parties, where I stayed up until after midnight, on one hand. Under any other circumstances I'd be quick to note that this really isn't my new year. For me, personally, the new years starts around 6am on June 1st. At 74 year old, as westerners calculate age, I'm making my 75th trip around the sun which will culminate on the morning of June 1st., 2021. I then have the right to call myself 75 years old. As a twelve year old, that was exciting. Now I'm just happy to have made it. But in light of circumstances in our country, I'm quite happy to see 1/1/2021 arrive. It means that in about three weeks we should see the beginning of the end of the political nightmare through which we have all suffered. Those who believe in prayer should be praying that the transfer of power goes peacefully. The rest of us live in hope. I'm afraid that I can envision He-who-shall-not-be-named having to be carried out kicking and screaming.
Observing January 1st as the New Year, despite it being an arbitrarily selected date, has its merits. It gives us a point on the calendar to use as a restart button. I'm hoping that we can make good use of that reset. Are we capable?
The optimist will be smiling and singing and toasting a new year in the certainty of new and better days ahead. Skeptics, like me, will be sitting back worried that we'll do what we always do. Skeptics are not pessimists! The skeptic isn't necessarily the one who says the glass is half empty. That's the pessimist. The skeptic believes that we should refrain from claiming an absolute or final truth. The skeptic may actually believe that the glass is half full, but isn't going to claim that as an absolute or final truth. Whether or not the glass is half-full or half-empty has too many variables to make such a claim. So when we start talking about a new year, we can't bring ourselves to completely join in the cheering. We will cheer people's intentions. We will cheer the opportunity. We will cheer the sense of newness and new beginning. We want success, happiness and a bright future as much as the next person. Nevertheless, we are realistic enough to know that the statistical odds, in the case of new years, are against us. It is going to take a lot of effort and determination to overcome those odds. Does the philosophical skeptic believe that humanity has the ability to overcome those odds? I think that, in general, the answer is 'yes'. I know that this philosophical skeptic (me) believes that humans have the ability. The question is whether or not humanity in this country will persevere. That's when a skeptic shouts, cheers and whistles in support of the good intentions, but will quietly (or sometimes not so quietly) sit back and wait to see what actually happens.
Unfortunately the gloomy weather pushes my mind toward the doom-n-gloom side of the spectrum. This, sadly, is supported by cultural characteristics and history. Nevertheless, I want to have hope. I want see the goals of a compassionate, humane society on the horizon and participate in the triumphant march to the beginning of new and exciting times for all people. I want to greet this New Year with the hope of expunging the 'we-they' mentality of this country and start putting 'us' back into US.
May all people know peace, prosperity, equality, and health in the coming year!

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