01 January 2010

Scrooge greets the new year...

Definition of a year is, of course, an arbitrary matter. To start it from roughly a week after the winter solstice is primarily a western secular decision, derived from pagan animism and formalised by Christianity, albeit tacitly accepted as an operational system by most of the world.

But I am as susceptible as the next person to shortening and lengthening days, cooling and warming air. "New Year's Eve & Day hold neither symbolic nor emotional meaning for me ... but the abstract idea of fresh beginnings, of looking forward to spring rather than back to autumn, is embedded in my biology.

In that spirit, to everyone reading this I wish the best of good fortune as they leave behind the old year and venture into the new one.

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