花捲窩

What’s to be celebrated about New Year's eve? Speaking of its physical attributes, the New Year’s Eve is neither longer nor shorter than a usual evening, the weather isn’t necessarily better, and it still occupies only one block on the calendar. The excitement comes today becomes into tomorrow, December becomes January, and 2005 becomes 2006—which all happened within a second.

It makes one dizzy and hyper to be crossing the border of time, stepping on the edge of a year and moving over to another. But what comes along and after the thrill? What exactly have we improved on? How many of us, besides the self-fulfilling politicians, dare to guarantee a prosperous year? How many New Year’s resolutions are found lying dead down the drain when they are finally unearthed during the year-end cleaning session?

Let us hope that New Year’s Eve or Day can be more a time for reflection then for self-hypnosis, which keeps telling oneself the next year is going to be better than the last one, as if the miracle simply comes on request.                      1 Jan 2006