Hi, there! And Happy New Year, everyone!
So a new year means: what? Well, it can mean promises that we make to ourselves to be better to ourselves and the ones we love. But we make this promise every year, don't we? So what's really different, what's to be considered special about another year? And, more specifically, this year?
My friends - fellow Gen X'ers - and I have long time since stopped disclosing our private promises, futile vows to ourselves - professed in the company of our most closest and intimate of guardians - about how we would finish what we attempted to do the year before. Really, I think, in a way, it's more of a glaring reminder of our failures: to say the same thing (just in a different way), for yet another year, when it obviously was a fruitless expedition in the last! Clearly, I have had my reservations about the whole "tradition" thing involved here. (Besides, we're mothers and fathers, now; we've outgrown such things...or at least, we let the media and the talk shows dictate what our goals will be for the year...)
But this year, I surprised myself. I was sending out my usual New Year's email greetings and realized, in re-reading it prior to sending it out (yes, I do edit most of my emails before sending them out), that there was an unmistakable quality about it that seemed awfully familiar. The best I could do to describe it was to call it a thinly-veiled attempt at "nostalgia" that was infused throughout. And there it was: the reason why, the older I get, I recognize that I have looked at tradition, kicked vehemently against it and the obvious tyrrany and staid resolve that it represented, dedicated my most passionate efforts to defy it, only to then mourn the loss of what I consider familiar and "old-fashioned" - crowded annual family gatherings, Christmas pancakes, sunrise service on Easter morning, the Macy's Thanksgiving parades, our icons and loved ones...
It's the nostalgia, the romanticism that causes us to not be OK with settling (at least, not for too long of a time) for being the janitor forever, when according to the American Dream, if we've put in the time to better ourselves, to educate ourselves, we should see some vertical movement in the company. Or why, even though our views on love may be a little unorthodox, we still seek validation. I.e., we want the wedding, the marriage license, the white picket fence -- even if we also have a penthouse on the water for 180 days out of the year. It is our homing device, the compass that irrefutibly guides and advises our impressions and convictions, without which I think a great deal of us would be LOST (and some of us ARE!). I think it is this sense of security, the comfort in knowing that I have the right to "expect" certain things to be, that fuels aspirations of healthy, well-rounded citizens of the world.
Take for example the idea of Santa Claus. There are probably many of you who know the story. Or, rather, multiple stories about the origin of the jolly, old guy who lives at the North Pole, keeping a list of naughty and nice children. I, honestly, thought I had heard it all when I began the Christmas season. I mean, hearkening back to the days of Father Christmas, and Old Saint Nick, and A Charlie Brown Christmas, and the tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, It's a Wonderful Life, and Miracle on 34th Street. These were all stories I had grown up with and looked forward to seeing over and over again -- and, even if I didn't quite choose to watch it for a span of a year or two (2), I still expected to see the broadcast times on the TV guide listing.
This year, however, I have to admit to having watched more variations on the theme of Santa Clause than I imagined ever existed...Never in a million years would I have expected to see so many different stories about the man in the bright red suit lined up, one after the other! And they weren't half bad. Although I must admit that I originally viewed them with some skepticism, expecting sappy, gushing, and sentimental script writing, coupled with bad, overly-dramatic acting. The lesson learned for me was this: if the arts, and in particular, writers, mirror what a society's sentiments are, then we are clearly yearning to believe in what we cannot see, but only feel, or that quality which we see embodied in our neighbors, our friends, a stranger in town. We want to be able to trust people to surprise us by not wanting anything from us in exchange for kindness other than gratitude. We are in desperate need of forgiveness from people that, for one reason or another, matter to us. And many of us will only do with forgiveness from God...This is what we characterize as the Christmas spirit. It's what keeps us on Santa's "nice" list - and off of the "naughy" list.
I had never before given much thought to the personification of Christmas, as portrayed in Santa Claus, but I have since come to resolve that Santa must represent mankind. We get true goodness, when we give true goodness; if we sow seeds of thorns and thistle, we will also reap this from our fellow man.
Simply put, this gives us HOPE and something to aspire towards. Hope of lifted hearts, of relationships free from animosity and strife. Even hope of looking forward to a truce with our own built-up issues. I, for one, haven't given up on "tradition." Even as I promise myself to do better, to treat my self better, to treat others better, I am reminded that my past shortcomings were not necessarily failures. Rather, I am reminded of a famous saying that has remained with me since junior and senior high school days: "If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again."
So this year, let's BE better to ourselves. At least, let's "TRY." How's that for nostalgia!
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