The MAGIC of New Years?

Once again we are closing out another year. The countdown to 2009 has begun. New Years Eve is tomorrow and surely there are plenty of events around the city for any and every kind of celebration you might be searching for. Not only is New Years a good reason to get together with friends/family to party and cut loose, but to many people it means much more. Whether 2008 has been good to you or not, it seems that the coming of a new year almost always signifies "a fresh start" in one way or another. Again, people look to the turning of a new calendar to make changes in their life... usually in the form of New Years Resolutions. Anything from dieting to quiting smoking, to a new outlook on their career or even relationships. The idea that turning the page on the calendar makes change any easier than any other day of the year has always been quite interesting to me... almost laughable. That makes as much sense as picking a day in the Fall to have children dress up in costumes in hopes of acquiring massive quantities of candy on a day that originated as a festival that the boundary between the living and the deceased dissolved and the dead become dangerous for the living by causing problems such as sickness or damaged crops... oh wait?!? LOL. I'm just kidding, I love Halloween. Heck, I still dress up. In fact its generally one of my more "successful" nights out of the year! Ok, I've drifted off the topic. Even though I don't buy into the "fresh start" myself, I can see the positive energy that idea represents and sometimes even results in actual postive changes to ones life. One might say its like magic potion that allows you to erase or correct your shortcomings and failures of the past year. The point is no matter how you celebreate New Years (I will celebrate with the Captain and maybe my buddy Jager), the idea of change it represents for a large number of people is a very good thing. Life is challenging and if New Years serves as motivation to keep pushing forward and improve your outlook on life... thats ok by me!!! I hope everyone has a happy and safe New Years Eve celebration and I'll be pulling for you to stick your resoulutions this year... even if you have yet to do so in the past decade : )