Monday 31st December
What is the meaning of it all I constantly ask myself, not only about life, the Universe and me – but also about human behaviour. Am I the only one who is unexcited about New Year? Most other idiots seem somehow ecstatically bananas about the thing. It is after all just a date on the calendar, and should really have been December 22nd to make any sense, at least then it would mark the Winter Equinox and the days beginning to get longer and full of new life and hope.
Many is the time I have sat watching people jumping up and down, throwing themselves in fountains, throwing vodka down their throats, throwing caution and the failure of the old year to the wind in a celebration of what exactly. Do any of them remotely imagine that the next year they will have achieved any more sense or wisdom; do they really think that their fortunes will change simply because it is 2013, and no longer 2012? Or is it a more basic human need to feel reassured (even if it is self-reassurance) that they are not solely responsible for their own destiny, but Lady Luck may take a hand and a new year will bring something better.
Also, I don’t know about you, but I have always thought that New Year arrives a tad too soon after Christmas. Why on earth did not the makers of the calendar leave a more decent hiatus between the two. It would have made more sense. Instead the whole country is disrupted by two weeks of boredom with a dash of hedonism thrown in for good measure. I wonder how much production is lost each year by all the empty offices and factories, and the slow cranking up of the machine again in January. Mind you I would be the first to complain if it was decreed that we all had to return to work on December 27th.
Well, whether you agree with me or not, and in the spirit of the whole ridiculous thing I sincerely hope that 2013 is a good year for you all.