An Alternative New Year's 'Celebration'

My wife and I agree on a lot of things. Over the years we've developed a kind of synergy in which what I think, she thinks, except when she's just humoring me, which, granted, is probably most of the time. 

On one issue, though, we fervently disagree and disagree almost annually. The issue in question: what to do on New Year's Eve. She believes that New Year's Eve should be spent having a life. I believe, though, that New Year's Eve is best for going to bed early.

I didn't always think this way, of course.  I've spent many phases of my life enjoying New Year's Eve in a variety of ways. But no matter how I've spent it, the principle attraction always seems to be that everybody collectively decides to stay up until midnight. Whoop-dee-doo.

That ceased to excite me sometime around the end of junior high school.

Meanwhile, quite frequently some object descends from something and flashes pretty lights. And there's a lot of yelling. But mostly it's just about staying up until midnight, counting down the seconds until the moment comes when we start counting seconds forward again. 

As I said before. Whoop-dee-doo.

The turning of the new year is treated as if it's an event of enormous consequence every year. But it's not. For whatever resolutions are made and promises are announced, Jan. 1 always looks exactly the same as Dec. 31, except a large segment of the population is hungover and a few are waking up in places they'd really rather not wake up.

The recent explosion of "First Night" celebrations takes some of the Saturnalian edge off of things, but not by much. And even so, the climax of a First Night event is midnight—like every other New Year's event—and I, for one, don't care.

Here's my alternative New Year's celebration. Spend the evening relaxing, maybe with a loved one, or maybe alone. Go to bed around 9 or 10 o'clock and get a good night's sleep.  Wake up Jan. 1 refreshed for the first time in the last 365 days and start the year off right. Finish by staying stress-free and relaxed for as much of the new year as possible. 

I realize for most of us we'll lose it sometime during the first quarter of the first bowl game of the day. But it's a start. A very good one, in fact.