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My Take

New Year’s: So what!

Mark McGee
Posted 12/31/22

The other day a well-meaning person asked me if I was looking forward to the end of 2022.

Two deaths, one my father and the other my girlfriend of 25 years. Three surgeries of my own, including …

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My Take

New Year’s: So what!

Posted
The other day a well-meaning person asked me if I was looking forward to the end of 2022.
Two deaths, one my father and the other my girlfriend of 25 years. Three surgeries of my own, including a cancer diagnosis that thankfully was removed.
I had a year filled with great plans and most of them fell by the wayside. So yeah, I can’t wait for this year to end.
The other part of the question from that well-meaning person was whether or not I was looking forward to 2023.
No, as much as I want 2022 to end, I am not anxious for 2023.
In truth, I had expected 2022 to be a good year after 2021 was somewhat disappointing for me personally. As the old saying goes “you don’t always get what you wish for.”
New Year’s Eve, or “Amateur Night,” as I like to refer to it, has always been a mystery to me in terms of why we celebrate it with so much enthusiasm. We are happily saying goodbye to one more year of our lives and looking ahead with hopefulness for better days to come. I see neither as a cause for celebration.
I have spent New Year’s Eve in New Orleans, Louisiana, Disney World in Orlando, Florida, in Dallas, Texas and at various concerts in Nashville, Tennessee. I guess I am not a party animal because all of the hoopla is lost on me.
I have never embraced it, but there is a deeper reason n for my failure to be giddy on the final day of the year.
I loved my girlfriend. We wouldn’t have stayed together for so long if there wasn’t a strong connection between us.
But for reasons I thought were valid at the time I said good-bye to the one true love of my life on a New Year’s Eve. It is a decision I am reminded of each December 31st and one that I regret every day of my life. Talk about a damper on New Year’s Eve festivities.
We sing “Auld Lang Syne” without giving much thought to what the words mean. It is a Scottish poem that was set to music. The literal translation of “Auld
Lang Syne” is “old long since”. That has been modified to mean “days gone by”, “old times” or “for the sake of old times”.
We all like to remember the good times in our lives so I guess “Auld Lang Syne” gives us that opportunity.
For even in the worst years there are good times to remember.

To answer that well-meaning person let me say Father Time can’t usher 2022 out fast enough. But forgive me if I greet 2023 with caution. I want to get to know it better before I will fully embrace it.