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Happy New Year 2024 · 30 December 2023


Happy New Year! Welcome to the year 2024! (In a day or two, if you are reading this post on or before the day it is released.)


Whether or not you are a reveler and spend New Year’s Eve reveling, it is a nice time to reflect on the past year and to think about getting ready for the next year. Of course, if you do too much reveling, you might want to hold off on the reflecting until your head is screwed on straight. (Well done, if that is not the kind of reveling you do.) Then again, regardless of the type of reveling that you do (or do not do), you still might want to hold off on the reflecting until the light of day when things are clear and fresh. When it is a brand new year.


(By the way. Whether you think that New Year’s Day is a holiday or not, the government does, and so we get the day off. Which is a nice way to recover from reveling long into the night or even morning. And it is a perfect day to reflect on the year just past and the year yet to come. The interesting thought about a holiday though comes when you consider Independence Day in America. The reveling occurs on the Fourth of July, and the holiday comes on that same day. The Fourth. It would make more sense to have the holiday on the fifth after the reveling on the fourth. And no. I am not arguing for a two-day national holiday. After all, most of the celebrations happen at night anyway. Okay. Many people celebrate all day too. Which also makes sense for having a day off the next day. Okay, maybe I am arguing for a two-day Independence Day holiday.)


At any rate.


The most interesting thing about a new year is that it is new. I know. Not very provocative or insightful. But it does mean something. At least it can. A new year can mean a new start. A new lease on life. A new perspective. A new list of things you want to accomplish.


(Yes. I did it. I mentioned a list. But a list of things you want to accomplish is not a list of resolutions. Which people do not do anymore anyway. Do they?)


I know. Sometimes that new list is daunting. Especially if it seems like the new list will be a new list of things that you think will inevitably not get accomplished. Which is why you might not create the list in the first place. (Like pesky New Year’s resolutions.) Bah humbug. Just do not make one. Do not make that list.


On the other hand, there is power in a list. Even if you do not get everything done. Even if you do not get one thing done. You still ought to make the list. After all, if you can put a check mark by that item when you accomplish it, you feel great. Or at least you feel like you actually did something. Even if that something was to wake up on time for work tomorrow.


Which brings us back to the beginning.



I wonder if we ought to celebrate Independence Day on Independence Day Eve instead of on Independence Day. You know. Light the fireworks and stuff the night before and have the barbeques and parties the day of. It would be like New Year’s Eve celebrations followed by a nice day of looking at the new year in front of us. Yeah, I know. People would still find it difficult to wake up the morning after.


Anyway.


I hope that you have (or had, as the case might be) a great New Year’s Eve celebration. I hope that you have a wonderful year in 2024. And by all means, make that list of things you want to accomplish this year. You might surprise yourself and finish something. (Even if it was just getting up on time for work tomorrow.) Which would make it a great year.


Happy New Year! Have a marvelous 2024!

© 2023 Michael T. Miyoshi

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