Tonight We’ll Put
to Bed a Number One

Please allow us to park somewhere else our customary loquacity for, we may as well just admit it: we have nothing else to add to this year.
We don’t feel like writing a treatise on everything we found wrong with it, or all those few moments that made it all personally worthwhile for us.
As a matter of fact, we’d have a terrible time remember it either way, so we’re in no position to declare the year one of the very best or one of the absolutely worse.
At this point, we’re also way passed the propriety of elaborating a best-off list, which is just as well: we hated them.
And please don’t ask us for any inspirational thoughts we may have toward the future, because honestly, we don’t think you’d like what you’d hear.
We’re not being smug here, and believe us, we could do with plenty of that and still never reach the usual heights they touch every day under and around the Manhattan bridge.
It’s more than a date, a moment, a countdown to the unknown, we know full well, and yet, that’s exactly what it’ll be for thousands of souls in this big city.
And word has it, it’s just fine with them being that way. After all, no one should be compelled to celebrate. Or to not celebrate. Or to call your mom. Or the get drunk. Or go to bed early.
But unless you already have your ticket back to your rock, you’ll definitely hear and feel the excitement from most of everyone you pass by in the street.
Let them be, you’ve been there yourself, and we bet you can remember how good it once felt. Perhaps even last year, but let’s not get gloomy and blue just because things may not have gone one way or another.
New Year’s Eve will be here in a few hours for us, but the majority of people on earth is not waiting, and by the time that godamned ball gets down at Time Square, they may be already ready to bed in a brand new year.
We do hope you’ll be surrounded by your loved ones when the moment comes, though, with everybody more than happy to have you around and all that.
Heaven knows we all deserve it, even those of us who feel we could’ve tried a bit harder, waited a bit longer, enjoyed a bit more whatever came our way.
If we abstract politics, and the economy, and the wars, and the social imbalances, and the proverbial African children, a year is just a year is just a year.
Just look at your pets, if you have them, and see if you can detect any change in their disposition just because it’s a new time.
From a logical standpoint, you’re entitled to choose whether you hope for a good or for a bad one ahead. Looking that way, the choice doesn’t seem too hard, does it?
Not to pile up another man-made meaning to what’s essentially up to your goodwill to expect, but in less than a month, it’ll be the Year of the Dragon, an exceptionally well liked year for Asians all over. And if it’s good for the majority of the world’s seven billion people, it shouldn’t be that bad to us.
In fact, just a quick visit to your local Chinatown should be enough for you to feel the energy and hope in the air for a new generation of babies, the Dragons that are supposed to usher a time of prosperity and happiness for all.
Since we’ll only need another number 1 in a decade, what’s there to add? Take good care and Happy New Year. We’ll see you in our dreams.