January 1, 2017

It is a new year!

Today is approximately two thousand and seventeen years after the birth of Christ, but that is probably not a thought on the minds of many this January 1st, nor is the thought that Jesus was only a week old back then.  Instead, people have been preparing to start a new year.  Discarded Christmas trees that have remained on some sidewalks for days already are a reminder that the joy of Christmas is over, that life will go on as usual, only to be interrupted momentarily by a final end-of-year celebration, often accompanied by a certain excitement around the world at midnight on December 31st and a degree of inebriation.

The excitement that is being paid to the passage of time every 12 months at midnight on December 31st, after accounting for different time zones, seems to be ubiquitous, and to transcend differences that divide peoples of the world geographically, linguistically, culturally, ethnically, racially, ideologically, religiously, politically, economically, morally, ethically, et cetera.

When the clock strikes at midnight each December 31, peoples of the world seem to agree and acknowledge that they are creatures of this earth, and that what was behind them will forever be behind them and that their lives are at the mercy of time that advances equally for everybody over which no one has control.  It is a moment of silent and unspoken humility, whether or not one is conscious of it.

This momentary annual humility comes with hope in every beating heart that the new year will be productive and wonderful, but if that seems unrealistic, at least a hope that the new year will be better than the last.  Ironically, it is those millions upon millions of hopes that divide one individual from another.  This inevitable separation occurs nearly simultaneously with the annual birth of a common humbleness that unites mankind which understands with absolute certainty that time is life's uncompromising master.

The cause of this "inevitable" separation arises from the will and pride of every man to be a master of his destiny.  Any degree of pride accompanied by the will to realize it would naturally lead to the usual conflicts that take place within families and between individuals, within a political system and between countries.  Peace, therefore, is not likely part of man's future, not when man's moment of humility that is born annually at midnight on December 31st dies as soon as he forms his hopes based on self-serving interests and pride, and not when man believes that Christmas, the arrival of Christ, the Prince of Peace and Savior, is only celebrated on December 25th with its true meaning quickly forgotten the very next if it has not already been secularized.