Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Year End (Mental) Clearance - and a song to boot !

“Should auld acquaintance be forgot….for auld lang syne.” *

You know the lyrics - it’s from that song we sing or lip synch because we don’t really know all the words, or, we may have imbibed too much to sing along. This traditional ditty signs off one year and ushers in a new one.
Another cycle of seasons and holidays and traditions and expectations that are embraced with four salient resolutions; more exercise, loose weight, less clutter, save money.

For many of us, these resolutions may join the company of the long lost forgotten toy sooner than Easter – for me it’s usually Super Bowl weekend ! Winter is half over, February vacation plans haven’t quite come together, Valentine’s is forecast to be Black Friday yet gain and more is expected with seemingly less rewards.

Lordy day, I sound like a Debbie-Downer, don’t I ?

Is it the fact that we are three days from the turning point of turning points ? New Year’s Eve ? Once again along with several others around the GLOBE we reflect on blessings and miracles, disappointments and loss.

It’s been a hell of a year; my mom’s health was at the top of the list – elder care and public health funding was both an education and my biggest accomplishment. My family showed how awesome they are not with gifts and parties and photos, but with actions and deeds. I received a generous respite in a cyclone of chaos from one friend who gave me his house for a week far off in the Hamptons. My colleagues overwhelmingly graced me with their trust to represent their best interest as the steward for the labor contract.. There was some loss – mostly intangible things like connections with people and opportunities for friend and family time that I missed or didn’t act upon with the initiative I should have.

While being house bound on the last Monday of 2010 I listened, first with bemusement then with disdain the endless whining about how inefficient the DSNY was at cleaning up after the Blizzard of 2010. I posted this on my status: I had surmised that our techno-instant gratification collective mindsets are turning a blizzard into a natural disaster because not every street is plowed and cleared. While I respect that lots of people need to get to work, perhaps this is a good time to reevaluate "non essential" personnel; take a group chill pill, read that book you got for Christmas, and relax. The response to this post suggests I am on to something.

Perhaps, then, it is in the same vane that I greeted the closing of the BARNES & NOBLE in Lincoln Square. Has the conversion to eBooks gone SO very well that not only we have we run out small independent book stores, but now they are making the big box go the way of the dinosaur ?

Will manual paper page turning books become as irrelevant as the daily newspaper ?

It leaves me with a new question;
WILL old acquaintance be forgot ?

Have a safe and Happy New Year ☺

*”Auld Lang Syne” Lyrics by Robert Brown, Music; Traditional. Late 18th century poem by Mr. Brown. Scottish origins, in which “auld lang syne” translates to “old long ago.”

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