New year

What does it mean to reach the end of one calendar year and the beginning of the next?  Is it, like, no big deal to you, or something special?  What are your New Year's traditions? Is it the time you like to kick back and watch Bowl games?  A great excuse to party?  Do you look back, get all reflective and philosophical?  Do you enjoy those year-in-review specials, those “best of” lists?  Or maybe you’re more interested in predictions, prophesies, astrological forecasts for the year to come?  Do you make your annual New Year’s resolutions?  I make almost identical ones each year; over and over, the same items appear.  (A sure sign of insanity?)

Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions.  Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. - Mark Twain

I found one site listing the top 10 New Year’s resolutions most people make, and I realize my list is everyone’s list, pretty much.  Should I feel good about this?  Is there strength in numbers?  Or is it more of a misery loves company sorta thing?  Or worse, kind of a sisyphean exercise in futility (and is that redundant?).  How can we ever break our bad habits and make our resolutions stick?  Behavior modification gets into some pretty interesting stuff, but I'll leave that for another day.

So... lots of questions to ponder, or not.  Okay, one more: What if your birthday hits on New Year’s Eve?  Awesome, right?  For nearly 20 years, I’ve known one person who makes this time of year very special to me, a fellow named Jackson.  He’s effortlessly cool.  He takes action, Jackson does, but he’s not overly showy.  He has heroic qualities, too, along with being sweet, funny, and pretty darned wise for his years. 

Here he is, protecting his sister Jade from dangers lurking around every pen at Phillips Ranch.  That makes me a very proud aunt.  Happy birthday, young man!

And to the rest of y’all… however you mark this time of year, may peace be with you... and if you party any day of the year, be sure you line up that driver for the way back home.