The Turning of the Year - 2015

Today marks the turning of a new year.

Last night in Elkton, MD the local citizenry dropped a huge crab from a pole to mark the New Year. There in the bar next to the crab drop a good hearty toast was offered. In Key West a drag queen was lowered from a balcony. She was reclined in a giant glittery pump. She was wearing a flowing purple gown. In Sidney Australia and in many Asian cities huge firework displays exploded above many storied skylines. If memory serves me in Memphis Tennessee, the home of the King, a guitar was to drop from a pole at the crack of 12 a.m. CST.

As a family we celebrated last night. A small shrimp tray, some homemade soup, crackers and Sprite with grenadine were the constituent parts of the repast. Slurping our soup and narfing our crustaceans we watched Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin provide the CNN coverage. At midnight the kids went off to bed. I watched for about a half hour more.

Nota Bene the youngest has a gaming party today. This thus required I clean some laundry, vacuum the hallways and wipe down the bathrooms as we gathered around the television watching the spectacle that is New Year's Eve. Even in anticipation of a holiday the tasks don't go somehow magically vanish. I didn't fatigue and kept at it up until I went to bed. Believe it or not I view this as a good sign.

The alarm was off and so I slept in. Clear eyed today we survey day one of the new year. In the political subdivision that is known as Michigan, United States of America, North America, planet Earth the day is grey. No surprise for the early January in this place. What is a surprise is that there is virtually no snow. Not complaining because last year we had about a meter of the white stuff that had already fallen. Also we had just gotten power back after a week plus without. I will take this day as one of grace.

The lads with their friends are in the living room re-watching the first episode of Over the Garden Wall. One of the gaming participants is running late. Me I am sitting in the kitchen listening to Chris Smither. “In those days we were single, we lived them one by one. Now days we hardly even see 'em, they don't walk they run.” Yeah, with the onset of the new year I found myself wandering back to this song.

We didn't travel very much over the holiday. We simply visited a college for my youngest son, a closed college at that. Valparaiso the town seemed okay to me. It was a standard courthouse square kind of place cum a college appended. Red brick from the early 19^th century seemed to predominate. I would not have liked a college so small but my tastes are not every person's.

Yeah even breathing feels alright. I look out the window and a passerby waves. Can't see the face because of the scarf and glasses. Still it was a genial gesture and I wave back. Amos Lee plays on the speaker and I keep typing. Pandora has just done a run of Johnny Cash, Folsom Prison Blues, the Rolling Stones, Sympathy for the Devil and CCR's Bad Moon Rising. The aural component of the day is nice and moving toward excellent.

A few years ago I made a decision that I would not make resolutions for any new year. Me, I am not one to set myself up for failure if I don't have to. Nope, no resolutions for me.

The above being said today I am thinking about the distinction between resolutions and goals. If I made it a goal to write 750 words four days out of seven would that be a resolution and would I feel as guilty if I didn't actually live up to it? My goal (not resolution) is also track four out of seven days in my Weight Watcher's tracking software. (Yeah, I agree that one seems almost like a resolution). Maybe I will ditch that tracking as a goal and just do it.

One goal I will try and live up to is staying connected and being responsive. One of my many cousins noted I don't often offer comments on Facebook. He was right. It is consistent with my overall behavior of lack of personal follow through. Having considered his observation my goal will be to respond to emails, notes and posts. As part of this goal I will strive to return phone calls. Another aspect of this goal will be to think before speaking but to speak when people are expecting a response.

Bruce Springsteen is singing “The River” and that is a good point to wrap it up. In defeat there is hope. In loss a new seed of growth is planted. In the bleak midwinter there is the promise of summer's bounty.