Here it is, the culmination of whatever we should plan to keep or shed for another year. Tomorrow has much promise if we can just commit on this very day to creating positive energy around us for the next 365.25 or 365.2425 days. Rituals and superstitions are prevalent today all around the world, and for very good reason. I might not prefer to actually throw furniture out a window, throw plates at the neighbors house, eat one grape for each ding on the midnight clock, or chase after a pig in the street for a touch of luck, but I too will reflect, “out with the old and in with the new”. Sauerkraut and pork (or cabbage and ham) will be on our menu, and everyone will make plenty of noise to either celebrate a fresh start or to frighten dark forces away, or perhaps both. If there is a King Cake this year, of course I will hope for the baby inside my slice. That was never my own tradition, but it belongs to some good friends who will be sharing their lively home and their fanciful feast. I don’t do resolutions since I don’t want the guilt of an unused gym membership. I prefer just to bid adieu to old disappointments and to continually reach for the stars. That attitude endures in my very soul a lot longer than the few weeks most would really try to stick to their resolutions. Just make good choices when you can, that goes a long way.
When I was young, we were quite often entertained by a game of five dice. It was very important to use a pencil while keeping score so that we could erase all the numbers and save the paper. Then came the introduction of a triple version of the same game, brilliant! If I rolled two-of-a-kind and three-of-a-kind all together more than once in a short period then I still had a spot for each full house score and I didn’t need to wastefully throw two dice back into the cup for a try at something different and better. I would always use the pink column first for my good scores as well as to use the white column for a few sad throw-away scores. My strategy was sound; near the end of completing the grid, a few zeros would be dutifully marked after my last few hopeful rolls for a “five same” perfection didn’t quite work out. A few zeros were always accepted as part of the game and that really is okay. The white column was tallied as-is, the blue column was doubled and the pink column was tripled. Then the eraser was rubbed up and down the columns with care as not to erase the grid, just the numbers, good or bad. Sometimes a fresh new eraser was the most valuable piece of forgiveness in our little box of game supplies. We always wanted to play again to see if we could improve our own score though, even after a really rough game. We were not quitters. I even learned to play alone for awhile and that was still an amazing amount of fun, to just keep rolling the dice and find out if the fates would be kind. Occasionally, a pristine tally sheet was ripped from the pad and we truly all got a fresh start.
To me, this is the day to toss that old tattered scoresheet (from our many attempts at winning the high score and erasing a hole into our paper). I have taken note of what went well this year and what didn’t play out the way I might have hoped. It is time to sharpen the pencil to write on fresh paper and to get ready to “roll on” and tally up our new combinations of dice. I will make some noise as I shake the cup and watch as the five cubes fall askew, but clearly visible, on my 2017 table. I will select the best combinations available to me and use the pink and white columns with contemplation. Honestly, a steady blue column path isn’t such a bad strategy either, but I will still focus on the white and the pink all the same. I will doodle on top of my paper while you take your turn. We never figured out a good use for that little timer in the box, but I suppose it is at least a good tool to keep things moving along when someone feels let down by a bad roll and has somehow passed the point of making good choices or accepting what is about to be added to the grid. It feels good to start over now. The clock and the calendar have a way of reminding us of what we value and what we are now permitted to let pass.
For whatever happened then or for whatever happens next, I do know it is within your grasp to embrace your own new year with passion and purpose. No matter how you spend this day, take a cup o’ kindness yet, for auld lang syne.
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