THE NEW YEAR - 2009
Hello everybody."And the beat goes on......................"
ANOTHER NEW YEAR:
This wasn't such a great year. Interesting I suppose what with an endless (and often seemingly relentless) Presidential campaign full of twists and turns, the China Olympics, drama aplenty on the world stage, global economic collapse and hard times everywhere. At times it seems like the whole world is being run by crooks, morons or psychopathic dictators.
And now old earth has made it around the sun one more time and the cycle of things starts anew.
Of course, Thursday will be just another day, not really that much different from Wednesday, and the whole idea of the New Year is somewhat an artificial, human construct, but no matter, it IS a chance to begin anew; to, at least in our heads and hearts, stop, clear out the cobwebs, take stock, think things over and start once again, and that is, I think, enormously useful and valuable. It's an opportunity to leave behind some of the baggage we've been carrying over the year; it's a chance for renewed hope and optimism - a chance to once again believe in what might "be" rather than what "has been". The New Year allows us to commit again to our work, to re-dedicate ourselves to our enterprises, to resolve to do better, to "be" better. We can run the race again - the last race is over and it doesn't matter how 'it' turned out. It's the future. In the sense that the New Year is about renewal - it is the essence of the stuff of creativity and what we are all about in the arts.
I'm not sure HAPPY New Year is what we should be wishing each other. We seem so obsessed with being Happy. Happy New Year, Happy Birthday. Wishing you Happiness. Maybe what we mean is we wish each other some degree of freedom from bad stuff, some sense of satisfaction or fulfillment. Or we wish each other prosperity, or safety or good health (or even success, whatever that is). Doesn't matter I guess, the good thing is that once again, even if it's just semantics, we can start over with great expectations and high hopes, and lord knows we need that right now.
ADVICE TO MAKE YOUR LIFE EASIER:
On the practical side of things, it is a perfect opportunity to clean house and empty the trash as it were, and if I could offer you one tip, it would be to spend a couple of hours at your computer this week, and delete all the stuff that you've accumlated over the past year.
You don't really need to save all those old emails, all those drafts of correspondence and memos and reports. You don't really need all those downloads and files on your desktop, do you? All that stuff you thought: "well, maybe I will need this someday." And guess what? You will NEVER need it or use it.
How much outdated info is in your 'Contacts' section? - phone numbers and email addresses no longer in existence? If you want to keep this stuff, back it up on some external hard drive, but get it off your computer. Get rid of everything except those things you are currently working on or will likely need in the next 30 days. Be ruthless. If you can, go online and buy one of those programs that will clean your computer of all the old stuff that snuck onto your machine, get rid of the malware and other junk that makes your computer run like an arthritic old man, remove the crap that is slowing down your life.
Need help? - there must be someone in your organization you can turn to that will know how to manage the technology of computer clean-up. Then you can start 2009 fresh - organized - and feeling that the junk from the past year is behind you. This is far more important than you think. Start the year by leaving the old one behind. You aren't going to get that much done on Wednesday morning anyway. Do something constructive - clean up that computer.
Wishing each of you a safe, sane, healthy, richly satisfying and fulfilling, prosperous, new beginning full of good stuff.
HAPPY NEW YEAR.
Have a good short week.
New Year's Resolution: Don't Quit.
Barry
