On New Year’s, we look back and look forward
The sand is rapidly running out of the 2023 hourglass, and over the last couple of days there have been the inevitable backward glances at the highs, lows, controversies and catastrophes that were packed in over the last 12 months.
It was the year of wars in Gaza and Ukraine, of continuing discontent over post-pandemic prices, of 91 felony counts for former President Donald Trump and sagging poll numbers for President Joe Biden. It was also the year that the planet continued to get warmer. In this region, it was the year when Kenny Pickett found it hard to find his footing as the Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback.
But it was also a year of medical breakthroughs, of Taylor Swift, “Oppenheimer,” “Barbie,” a new Beatles single and a new Rolling Stones album.
The Christmas holiday we celebrated last weekend is perhaps inevitably drenched in nostalgia – we remember Christmases when we were children, when the gifts we received seemed magical, and we also remember friends and family who are no longer with us to celebrate. But New Year’s is different – sure, we look back and mark the passage of time, but we can also look forward to a year of potential and possibilities as the new calendar goes up on the wall.
Almost everybody has some personal goals for the year ahead, whether it’s shaving off a few pounds, getting more exercise, finally learning to play the musical instrument that’s been languishing in the back of the closet, donating more unused items to thrift stores or spending more quality time with loved ones. Even as many look to 2024 with dread, though, there is the possibility that things will not be as bad as we fear. That after years of instability and polarization, things will finally settle into something that resembles normalcy.
Maybe this will be the year we will be a little kinder to each other and to ourselves, and we will learn something from what life has handed to us.
As John Lennon once sang, let’s hope it’s a good one, without any fear.
And it also seems appropriate to quote poet and essayist T.S. Eliot: “For last year’s words belong to last year’s language. And next year’s words await another voice.”
Happy New Year.