It Is A New Year
First off, happy new year. I won't capitalize it because it seems odd to see those three words treated like any other words in a sentence. We flip a calendar page and it is all new again. We resolve the usual things, and usually they fall to the side within days if not hours. So what really is new? Nothing. Just a new page on the calendar. It could work with any day. Nothing is really magical from December 31 to January 1. It could just as easily be January 22 to January 23. It all depends on us. Us.
For the most part we spread our legs for stability and gird ourselves for whatever life throws at us. We react. If we get knocked off our feet, we generally pick ourselves up and then wait for the next blow. Some don't, of course. Some come up with their own remedies, usually to the detriment of their loved ones.
So what have I been thinking about? My Mets, of course, who search for their second manager since November. This time of year I also think more longingly about my motorcycle, the Beast, that is in hibernation in BFE. I have also been thinking about time. Specifically the amount of time I have spent here in Kitschland. Also, at what point in time will I be able to escape. Time. Can't see it, touch it , smell it, in its moment. But given time, you can feel it and find a mirror, you can see it, too.
Time has bifurcated my time into the following sections: childhood, early adulthood, marriage and kids, job, and now, retirement. As I look back, all were fun, all were successful, and although I may be more introverted now than I was in the previous stages, nevertheless most other facets (physical and emotional) remain intact and functioning. More or less as usual.
So if I can now see the passage of time what are my thoughts as we enter the new year 2020? First, there is one more sector after retirement. And that is legacy. Breath long enough and you will end up thinking about what you will leave behind. Unfortunately, unlike a certain Mr. Scrooge, legacies are difficult to change after a certain point. A certain Mr. J. Ceasar uttered "ilea iacta est" before he uttered "o shitus" on the Ides of March. "The die is cast." Legacies are formed by the life entire: what we do in high school forms part of it, as do our marriage choices, our children and the myriad other things that become our life epitaph. But you can add to it whenever you want, at any age. So, start adding. Be kind, be compassionate, be thoughtful And have fun.
The other thing on my mind is the fleeting nature of time. Your photo albums are seconds in the long tapestry of our lives. We live those seconds every day - plugging holes in dams, going about the mundane things that make up those days. Work, family, the primacy of surviving and surviving well. We get swamped and easy about these daily exercises and before you know it, time has passed. Really passed. As we get closer to the end, and it is the one true thing that links us all together, use it wisely. Turn to your loved ones, not just today but everyday, and tell them you love them. Tell your house, tell, the trees in your yard, the air we all breath and the things that create the fun for us. I love you, Beast. The future won't be an abstract for long. The future for some of us is just around the corner. We are in a sea of aliveness with an everpresent regard for our mortality. Live life before it ends.
Those are my thoughts for the new year.
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