new-tone-ian

Scrub it clean. Erase it. Start over. Fresh start. Reboot. January. Month of Janus, that two-faced Roman deity. Patron of beginnings. And endings. Can you have one without the other? Sacred amnesia. Salutory forgetting. A new anew. Newsome. New(s). Renewal. (But how can new be new again without being old?) More than the absence of old. Metaphysical electro-shock therapy.

auld lang syne

Is it a looking-back? Or a looking-forward? Does the calendar turn if the Times Square ball doesn't drop? At the prick of midnight, the nadir of one year, the apex of the new, that is, the apex before the apex before the start. 00:00. 12:00. The exquisite edge, ultimate cliff, razor-tip Now, never to be repeated, never new again, but now in Now, of Now, for Now, is Now.

watching the ball drop

I don't watch the ball drop at Times Square at midnight, not typically. Just doesn't interest me. Who knows, maybe it would be fun in person. Maybe some day. But almost certainly not. "Maybe" is a capacious word.

what comes after 'penultimate'?

So now we are at the ultimate, the last day of 2016. Squeeze it out, like someone making orange juice, fresh. Drain it all, seeds and rind and pulp and beverage.

calendar musings

Soon December turns to January, and 2016 to 2017. I get that we don't live a year at a time, not even really a day at a time. It's this moment drifting or dissolving into the next and the next and the next and the next. You get the point. Still, I'm eager to bid good riddance to 2016, its upheavals, violence, tumult, blooms, blossoms, sunrises, sunsets, roses, rusts, and secrets. And that's talking about my personal adventures! Let's turn the page!

questions for a new year

Is it a year of the rat?
Or of the hat?
Maybe the sloth, the lemur, or axolotl?
When is the lunar new year?
How about the solar?
Or the plexus?
Where will I be a year from now, days after Epiphany?
Will I *be*?
Won't I *be* a "someone else" in any event, no matter what?
What epiphanies await me this year?
This day, this second?
And am I ready for them?
And does it matter, ready or not?

new year's resolutions

I typically do not make any new year's resolutions. Why would I? At least not out loud or written. So, how y'all doing with yours now that the year is just about half over? Hey, you can throw in the towel on the 2010 resolutions, if you like, and begin drafting the 2011 resolutions, ok?

Fine by me.

New Year's Resolutions, 2010

Why wait till 2010?

Let's do a dry run now; see what works; or doesn't.

I hope this starts a movement. What would we call it? The Pre-New Year's Post-Last Year's Quasi-Resolute Resolutions?

1. Run the Bhutan Marathon 2010.

2. Do the dishes every day. Maybe every other day.

3. Give up cigarettes. (Wait. I'd have to start!)

4. Meditate. Especially if someone is yelling at me; go into a deep trance.

5. Eat haiku.

6. Chew.

7. Walk.

8. Skip, at least once.

9. Write.

10. Sleep. (Perchance to dream.)

11. Nap.

12. Revise.

I need to revise my list.

But, as I said, I've got time to work on it.

Put back on your head those too-small, colorful cardboard cone hats and resume twirling your little noisemakers.

Cheers.

Happy 2010!

(Just practicing.)

(What would Kierkegaard say?)