It is interesting that a basically arbitrary day in an arbitrary calendar has such power over the world. Today is December 31, 2012. Tomorrow will be the official first day of 2013. So what will be different?
In some ways, absolutely nothing. January 1 is not truly the beginning of anything. It does not start the planting year, or the harvesting year. It does not actually start the retail year, or even the school year. It does not even start any seasons. it is just a day of winter (or summer – depending on what hemisphere you are from). On the surface, it is just another day. So why does it have so much power over the world?
The simple answer is because we choose it to. This is one of the few “holidays” that most of the world agrees about. Granted there are several cultures who also use different calendars, so also have different dates for the year’s beginning, but they all still accept the Gregorian Calendar, the calendar that has January 1 as the beginning of the new year.
“What’s the big deal?” might be passing through your mind.
Think about it. This arbitrary day on an arbitrary calendar has been designated as the day of fresh starts; the day when we wipe the slate clean and start writing again. And this concept is shared by pretty much the whole world. Whatever our differences, most of humanity has decided that TODAY, we will say good-by to the old, and TOMORROW we will start out fresh again. All over the world, people are celebrating the cycle of life. All over the world, people are pondering the year past to see what we can learn from it; what we would change. All over the world people are thinking how to change themselves for the oncoming year, how we can improve things for the next year.
For two days of the year, most of humanity is of common mind. We shelve our differences and simply say good-bye to the old as we welcome in the new. And why is this?
Because we all have CHOSEN too. No other reason. it is not a religious mandate. It is not written in any laws. It is simply the day we all decided that one year ends and the next begins.
This, to me, is a VERY big deal. It shows that humans can easily find common ground; that humans can be of one mind, that working together IS in fact not only POSSIBLE, but a proven reality.
All we need to do is CHOOSE to make it happen.
So what will you do with YOUR clean slate?
