The last day of the calendar year is known as Old Year’s Day in some cultures and Saint Sylvester’s Day in others. Here in America, we refer to it as New Year’s Eve. Our culture treats New Year’s Eve as a celebration, symbolizing the passing of the torch from one year to the next. Many see it as a day of renewal, allowing the sins of the past year to be washed clean by the proverbial waters of the year to come.
In our culture, as well as many others, the practice of making New Year’s Resolutions is quite popular. The origins of this tradition date all the way back to our polytheistic roots, when people would ask the gods for a fruitful year ahead. In modern times, these resolutions act as personal intentions, typically in the form of small hopes and desires for positive change in the year to come. Losing weight, quitting smoking, and fixing various small foibles are all common resolutions people make on the night before the new year.
Resolutions are often more symbolic than anything else, representing broken promises we make to ourselves, born from a desire to become better versions of who we are. For many people, they may seem silly or uninspired. Yet, I have always believed in the power of symbolism. I believe that rituals, words, and intentions can change the course of our entire lives. We see it happen all the time; we just have to believe that anything is possible.
There have been times in my life when I haven’t been the person I wanted to be, an experience I’m sure I share with all people everywhere. Whenever I’ve needed to refocus myself, I’ve turned not to belief, but to symbolism. I’ve searched for that identifying totem that will remind me of the things that truly matter. Because sometimes we just find things, things that resonate with us, and that can make all the difference.
Like many readers and writers, I have a few literary heroes whose work speaks to me. One of these esteemed wordsmiths whose works I cherish is the indomitable Kurt Vonnegut Jr. One of Vonnegut’s books is called Timequake, which for the unfamiliar is about… well, it’s difficult to explain what it’s about, actually. Although I highly recommend reading it, the significant thing to note for this article is that one of the premises of the book revolves around a “Timequake” or time loop of sorts.
In this timequake, the consciousness of everyone in the world is transported back in time 10 years, and every person has to relive their lives exactly as they had before, without the ability to change anything. It’s as if they were passengers in a 10-year replay of their lives. When the timequake is over, people are still on mental autopilot. Pilots crash their planes, drivers crash their cars, and no one can remember what living with free will was like.
Gripped by a terrible sense of apathy and ennui, people can’t find a way to move forward now that they are back behind the wheel. The protagonist (Vonnegut stand-in Kilgore Trout) is the only one unaffected. He runs around waking people up from their stupor with his now-famous mantra, “You were sick, but now you’re well again, and there’s work to do.”
On a few past New Year’s Eves, as I watched the ball drop in Times Square from the comfort of my couch, those words were the last thing I said before the next year began. I had felt sick, not like myself, but it was time to get moving again. There was work to do, and so work I did. It has become somewhat of a tradition for me. This year, I decided to share this little story because 2023 was a difficult year for me and those I care about.
One of my closest friends, at the time an undiagnosed bipolar sufferer, fell into a dangerous depression and needed to be hospitalized. Another had a serious brain surgery and shortly after was blindsided by a difficult health diagnosis for a beloved family member. My daughter was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia. A cartilage tear and a pair of bone spurs in my hip left me unable to walk for a few weeks. My father-in-law passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. Major projects I’ve been a part of were delayed, causing a cascade of problems that have yet to be resolved.
And this is just the stuff I’m willing to write about.
If my time on social media has shown me anything, it’s that I am certainly not alone. Murphy’s immutable law of bullshit and all that jazz. But I survived, as I’m sure most of us did. Time moves onward, and so shall we. As a new year is about to begin, all the same troubles wait for me on the horizon. They wait for us all. The difference is, I feel closer to my dreams today than I ever have before, both figuratively and literally.
But we’re not there yet, are we? So, for one more time (perhaps the last time, perhaps not), I’ll rouse myself from the malaise that’s gripped me the last several months and say the words again just before the clock strikes midnight.
“You were sick, but now you’re well again, and there’s work to do.”
Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year, everyone! Let’s get it!
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