Several thoughts on New Year’s Eve:

1. I think New Year’s resolutions are dumb. If you’re going to resolve to do something, you shouldn’t have to wait for a particular day to do it. Either do it, or don’t. And if you don’t want to do it, then really don’t. Breaking an oath to yourself seems as misdirected as belief in astrology.  (And whining about it later just compounds the impression.)
2. Taking stock, though, is a good thing. Milestones are good for marking time. Here are three of mine:  in 2012, it’ll be 20 years since I started my theatre company; 25 years since my wife and I got married; and 50 years since I was born. I’ll be taking stock all year long.
3. Since having children, I’ve spent most of my New Year’s Eves writing. That’s because my wife usually has to work the holiday, so we don’t have a party, and I stay home with sleeping children. Two years ago I took my youngest and my friend to an event hosted by the Burbank parks department that ended with about 40 of us scaling a mountain in the dark at midnight to toast the new year. That was pretty good. Last year, I said I was going to do nothing, then I had a friend say that he had nothing to do, then another friend, then a friend who was getting off work at 10 p.m. or so, and then I wound up with a small impromptu party of people watching intentionally bad movies I’d recorded. (Case in point:  “Slither.”) Basically, the event turned into an evening of some friends and I, and my 8-year-old, sitting around poking fun at not-good movies and having drinks. (Martinellis for the kid.) This year, I’m back to the writing mode.
4. A friend from my college days reminds me how we used to celebrate New Year’s Eve, before the mundanities of adulthood and responsibility. This sounds all too typical: “Do you recall the NYE party at the home of someone for whom Duane  was house sitting ? You and Jack  amused yourselves by filling a frisbee collection that hung on the wall with flour. When that task was completed you called dial-a-joke for a very long time, handing the phone to everyone who walked past you…Of course I was a stellar party guest myself…Paul  brought me to the party. I went to say goodbye to the rest of the guests, leaving Paul standing at the door holding my coat for no less than an hour, having another drink…and saying goodbye as though I wasn’t going to see any of you ever again..When surely I was going to see you then next day or the day after! I also recall that Duane was apoplectic!” Yesterday I was complaining that someone in my house keeps leaving the door to outside open, and therefore the $65 increase in my heating bill. Now I’m confronted with this vision of myself, 27 years ago, running up some innocent people’s phone bill and placing “clever” traps around their house.
5. Peel back the surface, and New Year’s Eve is a ludicrous holiday. What precisely is the message? Do we celebrate because we survived the year; is that it? Or are we making the statement every year that we’re just glad it’s over? Or is it just another excuse for a party? I honestly don’t know what it’s about. Please explain it to me.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 31st, 2011 at 11:45 pm and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.