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by Arnold De Villa
January 1, 2012
“Oh my gosh…five more days and it will be a new year!”, an excited youth exclaims.
“Really, so what is new about New Year? It is nothing else but a calendar’s novelty”, so says the cynic.
“Everything will be the same. There is nothing new under the sun.” An old man whispers as he stares at his wrinkled hands.
Soon the pages of 2011will fill our garbage. 2012 will come in with smiling faces, lovely sceneries and all sorts of art work. Hidden at the back of our desks will be the old New Year’s resolutions, replaced by a set of new ones that will soon be old. So what do we measure in the coming of a New Year? It seems that this excitement wanes with age. The older we get, the less exciting the New Year becomes. But what is excitement than the sheer anticipation of something different, a mere novelty of the same old stuff? Or is this just because the dredges of youth are waning within me, within us, the varied faces of different generations, the in-between, the go-between, the young once and the young ones?
Life is sometimes like a river that is never the same. Yet it is also like the four seasons, always four and not more, always four and not less. The cyclical motion of life goes round like a merry go round, entwined within the linear growth of human biology that starts from birth and ends with death, yet starting life anew with a different face and a novel phase. Each step, an old fragment packaged in new wrappings. How do we measure the excitement of a new year? The gifts are gone. Many of them have already been probably returned to the stores. Children are already bored with their new toys. The most recent technology is already obsolete. Fashion is no longer a fad.
There must be something about something new besides the transitory novelty of being new. What is it? Turning things upside down or inside out cannot provide the answer. That would be an utter dissection and destruction of things we touch. The loveliness and excitement of the New Year is perhaps coming solely from a new perspective emerging from the restoration and resurrection of a different perspective,the same old things approached from a different light. It is the only thing that deletes the dreariness of an old life – hope. No, not the ones used by politicians, the hackneyed cliché that promises a honeymoon of change. I am referring to that hope that emerges from the recesses of a persistent human nature, not giving up despite the adversaries of nature, not giving in despite frustrating obstacles.
Maybe it would be good if we all tried to be an element of inspiration to anyone who might come across a common path or even those that are off tangent. So what is it to be an inspiration? We will not blurt out unsolicited advice lest we turn off even our most ardent friend. We will not stand on a street corner and be preachers of doom. And most likely, we will not change the normal routine of our lives lest we enter the chaos of negative expectations.
Perhaps, we can inspire and bring some hope through a simple alteration of a normal daily task, without adding a spectacle or without being too conspicuous. A small adjustment of an attitude, a tiny self-control against anger, a seemingly insignificant sacrifice of a personal preference, could all be perceived as something better and something new. Indeed, there is no drastic need for a dramatic deluge of New Year’s resolutions to implant and infuse the old premises of hope. A small adjustment could deliver huge changes. And if we do this little good thing consistently on a daily basis, not losing our sense of perspective and awareness, maybe at the end of next year we would have attained that which we have long sought for.
There is nothing new under the sun. But there is always something new on the way we see things. Just ask someone who is deeply in love. The ugliest girl becomes a princess. The most beastly and ghastly looking man becomes a prince. So it must be true that love changes how we view life. But behind love is that hope that changes the way we live. And then the New Year becomes truly new.
As a New Year’s Day arrives, we do need to renew the old hope that seems to have been battered by the daily strife and tears from the year that was. We do need to cleanse our eyes and regain the perspective we so cherished before the tragedy of unemployment, before we lost our home, before our loved ones were lost in the cruelty of war. We do need to regain that hope which we ourselves used to share before we got sick with cancer, before we were left alone at home, before we lost everything we owned.
Sure, it is not easy. Nothing is easy. Yet what is difficult? Is this not another tandem based upon our personal perspectives? Adversity seems to frown upon those who can convert them. It seems not to exist among those who have committed to focus on the light instead of the gray cloud. Like so many coaches say, a loser is only a loser when he accepts defeat. Winning is not a mere internal victory that sees things through another angle. It is not only a self-act of consolation or a compensatory strategy that helps us balance things. It is rather that sturdy ability that recognizes our strengths and our will to live.
Happy New Year Folks! I wish you all the best!