New Years

It has been pointed out to me that I missed the whole holiday of New Years. My apologies. That one kinda snuck up on me too. That is the problem with me these days, I lose track of what day it is, and what important event is coming up.
If this "event amnesia" ever extends to my wedding anniversary, I am a dead man!
New Years isn't the big deal with me that it once was. Just another turn of the calendar. I might watch one of the shows on television, but only because I tend to be up that late anyway. Neither Sandra nor I are big on parties. Most parties around this time of year are regular booze fests anyway, and we just don't drink. (On the other hand, it can be funny to watch others get plastered. Five women dancing on a coffee table is amusing for a few seconds.)
I think, as I get older, maybe the changing of the years will regain their importance. When I was a boy, it meant that I had another year of life behind me and, presumably, I was that much more mature (or as mature as guys get) and wiser. Approaching mid life, time has gotten somewhat irrelevant to me lately. So a new year is just more time. As I get older, it will be a question of looking back and deciding what I should have done, and what will have to be done tomorrow, if I am to make the world a better place. There won't be enough time to procrastinate.
And there it lies in black and white. I have put off so much that I really needed to do. When the time comes that the time behind is greater than the potential time ahead, I will regret all of those things I didn't do.
All of that being said, I refuse to make new years resolutions. The promises we make simply because of the time of year don't really mean much. Look at all of the people who are still smoking after years of saying that they were going to quit. No, the promises that matter are the ones we make to ourselves, and that we don't necessarily tell anyone about. They tend to be far more binding.
People also tend to do a lot of predicting at this time of year. I can't do that, the world is just too full of crackpots, malcontents and simple coincidences to accurately say something will happen. Which of course, leaves only hope, not unlike the tale of Pandora's box. I have hope that in the coming years we will finally shake ourselves out of our sleep and do something about the mess we have made of our world. I have hope that people will finally realize that only together can we keep the world a place we want to live.
Most of all, I hope that each of you will have a good year, filled with wonderful experiences and new things learned.