On New Years

Perhaps because my life has always been centered around the academic calender, New Years has never particularly felt like the start of something new. When the holiday is over, I return to the same drudgery of my life, largely unchanged by the uptick in the numerical value of the year. The older I get, the more I start to appreciate the need for the arbitrary demarcation of beginning and end. More and more, life seems like a static endeavor. Without major events to look forward to, going to college for example, it becomes hard to delineate any sort of pattern to life. Thats why New Years is so important, though people realize that nothing has intrinsically changed just because of the date, they simultaneously realize that nothing changes unless that change is sought out. To wit, the prevalence of New Year's resolutions, though people understand that just because it is now January it will still be just as hard to break long formed habits, they embrace the ritual. Declaring the start of a new beginning is easier when there is a sense of organization around it. Even the idea of making out with a stranger at midnight owes something to the arbitrary sense of new beginning. Romantically helpless people become emboldened by the promise of a new start, people lower their guard, and from this amorphous idea of beginning, an actual beginning arises.

The beginning of 2012, provided the world doesn't end as our Mayan friends may or may not have predicted, will be dominated by the same stories. The Syrian revolts, the Russian protests, the Iowa caucuses, will all still be the focus of the public conversation. As new stories arise, the year begins to take shape, it doesn't matter if something happens in late December, or early January, though it feels like it does. The Gabrielle Gifford shooting, for example, in the beginning of this year seemed to presage a tumultuous year, just as some news story will surely arise in early January that will augur either good or bad tidings for the year.

The New Years season, in this age of online commentary, has brought with it an unending number of lists about various 'years best.' Again, does it change the aesthetics of a movie if it comes out in December or January? Of course not, but without that delineation to guide us, the past becomes muddled into an uncategorizable mish mosh of all that has preceded us.

All that said, I hope those who wish for a new beginning of January 1st get there wish. Those that enjoyed 2011, keep doing what you're doing. Here at the Redel Traub Report, we will continue to bring you salient analysis, mixed in with the whimsy we've all come to expect. Happy New Year, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanza, etc, we'll see you in 2012!