Another Year, Gone

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I have never really been one to celebrate the new year. My family has a tradition of food, fun, and frivolity that concludes with fireworks, after which we go to bed. As for myself, I figure the new year will be there in the morning, and since I don't drink or party, I don't really go out. This year, I'm recovering from influenza, and so the more water I drink and sleep I get the better off I will be, and so I haven't strayed much from the house except for work in weeks.

As part of our family Christmas tradition, we watched a version of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. In this particular adaptation, Scrooge remarks on the season as a time when you find yourself "A year older and not a penny richer". I have had some very tough years; 2010 was particularly irksome, and in comparison with that, 2013 was pretty good. Although I am a year older, I had one of the best financial years of my life, and some problems have cleared themselves up. Still, I am not sad to see 2013 go. It allows me to put behind me a chapter of my life that dawned in January with hope and then slipped into ignominy.

Most people can probably think of a reason to be glad the year is over. Aside from David Barry's annual analysis (this year's was particularly dour and dismal), there are always things that don't go the way we would like or hope, and although I managed some small successes, 2013 wasn't nearly as good as the year prior. I watched a lot of things end that I hoped would last and saw some things last that I wish would end, and in the end, it's not Kevin McAlister but I who's Home Alone.

We celebrate the new year because it comes with hopes. We hope that we'll do better, be better, and have better. I heard a great many people in the last week prognosticate that 2014 will be very good for most people. Naturally that's illogical and unlikely, but we like to think that it's a clean slate, a new chance, to cast off the old and look forward to things rather than looking back with longing, sadness or regret. It gives us a chance to put off the old and ring in the new, which is a very Christian concept, making New Year a part of the Christmas season and tradition.

I do hope that these people are correct and that 2014 brings good tidings of comfort and joy. I do hope that people who have good hopes for me are correct. I tend to be pessimistic about such things because it's a way I win; if I'm correct, then I got what I expected, and if I'm wrong, it's a pleasant surprise. My hiking buddy told me Saturday while we were at Red Rock that he can tell that I am still a man of great faith. I have just lost faith in people. If I were not of faith, I would have probably given up and given in long ago and rendered myself indistinguishable from the rest of the kitten caboodle. I would be out carousing and carrying on like a chimpanzee on caffeinated cola, and I would probably not be very proud of myself. I might have stopped attending church or changed religions or quit praying, but I know that the gospel is true even if the people are not, and so I stay and struggle, visibly alone. Crusades of conscience are difficult because you often seem to stand alone against great odds, but I did last through another year, and I did rise up this year to be a better man than I was in 2012.

Thank you all of you for reading my thoughts and sharing yours with me. I thank God that I have this meager means by which to share my life with you. It is good to know, even though we may never meet, that we have influenced each others' lives. I hope that you free yourself from difficult times and that you are able to make something of your lives. I hope that you talk to your parents, love your children, respect your neighbors and bring honor to your employers. I hope that when your years are out that you can say that you have lived them well. I hope you really do get to live.

I had a decent year. There were some major hiccups, and they all reached a climax at the end of the year without a balm to clear things up, so it seems dreary. I am not entering 2014 like I entered 2013, with a strong and serious prospect, but I do have Seven of Eight, and that is wonderful.