Though I try to resist the temptation to wax nostalgic in general, or mark the big transitions that are based on our some what random parsing of time, I find myself awake early as usual with the new year and the passage of time on my mind. While it appears to have become fashionable for the media to bash the expiring decade (and with good reason, I might add), I have to say that until the bashing started I did not feel any worse or better about it that any other I have lived through.
Then again, does it really matter? Life goes on, change happens regardless. Sure, these arbitrary milestones bring about the sort of criticism and assessment to which I refer. I remember it well from ten years ago. And the ten years before that too.
So, instead of tearing apart and picking on everything we did in the past, why not actually focus on the future. That is not to say forget the past. Respect and accept and move on. No matter what, there is work to be done and we can ill afford to chalk it up to the random numbering of our time keeping systems.
So, I don't know what to call the last decade, and don't care. (Though, Aughts, does seem a bit dandy to me...) As I look at the decade coming up there are many things to be enthusiastic about. Change is the one constant. The end of one thing means the beginning of another. Platitudes, to be sure, but that does not mean that there is no truth to them.
Happy New Year and get to work. Holiday season is over and our problems and challenges still await us. I for one, can't wait.
