The calendar tells us that today is the first day of January, a day that marks the changing of another unit of time called a year. In reality it is just another day that means as much as tomorrow will. For some reason though, down through the ages we put a special tag on this day. Unlike other days that we say have special meaning, this day has no historical perspective. Christmas and Easter have religious ties to history whether we think of them as myth or fact. Labor day has a historical tie to the rise of the common man and memorial day is a day when we remember those who have died in historical wars to defend this country or our allies. The fourth day of July is celebrated as the day The United States became independent of the English Empire. The first day of January though is just a day that marks time. The Earth has made another trip around the Sun. Those of us who are here have managed to survive that trip one more time. According to the modern calender, we just completed out two thousandth and twelfth time since we started keeping track of such things. Most humans are only around for seventy to ninety of this trips around the Sun. Not a lot of trips for each of us in relation to how many times the Earth has made this trip.
This past year was a little different though. Some of our brightest minds in the human race had decoded an old calender that some ancient Mayan had been working on and apparently got tired of working on. He stopped carving the calender on December 21, 2012. The only significance that the date holds is that it is the winter solstice. Maybe in those days it was the winter solstice that marked the end of a year and so the artist quit carving the calendar at the end of that year. We don't really know the story of the Mayan calendar but our over imaginative human minds decided that the ancient Mayans, who sure were more advanced than us, knew the world was going to end on that day. Because of this we had a full year of anticipating the end of the world on that date. Needless to say, since I am writing this over a week since the world was suppose to end, the Mayan calendar was wrong. Actually it would be more appropriate to say that we took an old unfinished calendar and let our imaginations run wild to a false conclusion. It wasn't the first time humans have done this and chances are it won't be the last.
The year we just finished were like almost every year that ever happened before in some ways. Every year there is the realization that people die. This year, as in years past, there were deaths of friends and family. This year most of the deaths were unexpected. There were deaths brought about because of a difference in political views. Families lost loved ones suddenly without a hint of what was coming. Some friends lost loved ones knowing that death would be in the near future but never expecting it when it happened. We mourned these losses and hold these loved ones in our memory and will continue to do so until our time comes to finish our time on this lonely planet in the universe. January one will not take a break in the death of humans.
On the other side of the death events, we had new family members and friends join the human family. The same as death, some were rather expected while others came as a total surprise. Family members that we took as probably never starting a family suddenly did. Other families added to their families with new ones. Every new child that I know entered the world was a blessing and came into the world with love surrounding them. Unfortunately, there were also additions to the human family around the world that were just as much a surprise but not a welcome one. children all over the world were born into families that did not want them. A lot of children caused only hardship to families and to countries. January one does not stop the human race from bring in new ones to fill the void of those passed.
The battle between pro-life and pro-choice continued to engage in battle all through the year with nothing really changing, except for the adoption option entering seriously into the issue once again. Not only Chinese and Ethiopian adoptions continuing but the adoption option of American children began to gain a foothold in the fray. However, politics upset the situation when President Putin of Russia signed a law that prohibited Americans from adopting hundreds if not thousands of Russian children looking for a home life as well as potential parents looking for children to call their own.
Wars and terrorists activities continued all through last year and will continue after today. War and terrorism does not recognize January one as a start-stop point of any of the activities associated with them. If anything, some of those involved in war and terrorism see January one as another marker in lasting and carrying out their plots for another year. Again, it seems like January one is just a point in time.
We, in the United States went through the excersize of electing a President like we do every four years. It was more of the same, lies and half truths being told from both political parties. A president was elected and we as a country continue to move through history. For the most part, I don't think it would make much difference on who was elected for our future. Sure there are subtle changes, but the way the government of the United States is set up by our constitution, things are pretty much held in check by the three branches of government. We do not have to worry about a President going rogue here. A few of our presidents have done some pretty stupid things, but nothing that truly effected how our country is run and what it can do to the citizens. We'll do it again in another four years and again, not much will change in the big picture of things.
Technology does not pay attention to January one. It will continue to out pace what we can comprehend either for good or bad. Personally I wish it would slow down for a bit but that will not happen. On the bad side, technology seems to isolate people ore and more as it advances. On the good side it helps the economy by playing on the human feelings of wanting to be on top of things, even though a lot of us do not understand the new technology. I just want a chance to try to understand what all this new gadgetry can do and what it is for. As far as the men and women who develop the technology, January one comes and goes and doesn't stop the creation of things that are suppose to make life easier for us.
The one absolutely good thing I can say about January one is that it brings things back to normal. From October 31 until January 1, the world goes into a suspended state of craziness. It starts with Halloween, carries on through Christmas and up to the marking of a new year. People take off from their jobs and don't know what to do with the time. Some companies close down for a whole week between Christmas and New Years. People get dead drunk on the last day of December by the multitude to celebrate a day that means virtually nothing, except changing the calendar by one number.
For me, I welcome January two as a big day. It is the day I start working five days a week again. It is the day that things finally get back to normal. I like normal. Starting tomorrow, nothing would have changed from yesterday, not really. We can just get back to leading a normal day to day life for another year before we have to go through all of this again.
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