So this is the new year

2013 is rather an awkward number. It is odd, for one thing, and altogether unmemorable, although I did just realize that it is includes the numbers 0, 1, 2, and 3, just in a scrambled order, and that may be something. I pity the kids who graduate from high school this year: “Class of 2013” just doesn't roll well off the tongue.

Today is already the fifth day of the new year and so far the most exciting thing I've done is get stuck on a blocked one-way street downtown in my FedEx truck. Although I suppose working my last day at Barnes and Noble and getting a new job to replace it counts for something too. Otherwise, life is plodding along as per usual. I've always felt that New Year's Day comes at an odd time given the symbolism we ascribe to it. Instead of youth and rebirth we have dead trees, pale skin, and winter closing in on us like a noose. The Christmas season comes to a close and everyone slouches back to work and school, a few pounds heavier and few dollars poorer. The new year doesn't exactly feel like a fresh start. It feels more like buckling down and gutting through the same persistent problems. Same old cold. Same old snow. Same old long stretches with no holidays (except Valentine's Day, but how many people actually like that one?). If we were to celebrate New Year's sometime around the end of March, however—now I could get on board with that. There is nothing like the fresh air of spring to invigorate resolve and inspire change. These mono-clouds and frosty mornings aren't exactly charging me with excitement.

Unfortunately, whoever made the calendar didn't bother to consider this (or maybe weather in the Mediterranean is just always pleasant so it was irrelevant), and we must face this new year as it is, cold and all. On the bright side, the days are finally lengthening again. Each morning the sun will rise a little sooner, and each evening it will set a little later. If symbolism is what I'm looking for—and as a writer, it always is—I suppose this will have to do. It does make me feel a little better, knowing this. Perhaps the darkest days are over, and a new light will begin to shine.