Endings are Beginnings

            It’s interesting that this is the season that’s thought of as marking the end of the year when it’s also marking the beginning of the year as well. Why is it that there’s such a focus on the end of the year, when the beginning of the year happens at – literally – exactly the same time?

            I suppose it’s probably because endings come before beginnings, and what’s right in front of us is easier to see than what’s lurking behind it. It’s all rather arbitrary, anyway, since it’s simply a time someone in the past chose to start counting from, yet we shape our minds around it.

            For example, the end of the year is when it’s important to be with family and to be generous, showing people how much you care. Which is silly, because you should care about people the whole year round, but I feel it also says a lot about humanity as a whole.

“Look! The year is coming to an end, better get together with family before time runs out!” Then the New Year comes and everything becomes about taking strides forward – making this year better than the last. And all the important things, like friends and family, get pushed into the back of the mind until we realize that another year is almost over, so we’d better get together.

            As a species, we love symbols and traditions. Having a checkpoint that we pass every year is a nice way to tell ourselves that we can keep growing and improving, and it gives us a point to use as a starting line. Yet, we’re also supposed to put our best foot forward, so wouldn’t it make more sense to get together with friends and family at the start of the year, rather than procrastinating until the end of the year?

            We could even split the difference. We could shift the New Year to the beginning of winter, rather than the end, and have our traditional get-togethers at both the beginning and end of the year. Or we could move the New Year to the most sensible place to have it start, at the beginning of spring, and we’d get together in the middle of the year.

            Or, of course, we could simply decide that what’s important to us is important for the whole year. Not everything has to have a set time or place. Time is just an imaginary construct we have so we can organize things, anyway. Perhaps we should stop using time as an excuse.

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If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.