Auld Lang Syne

Here in the Eastern Time Zone, it's three hours before midnight, and I'm counting the minutes until the end of 2009 and this entire decade (yes, I know; technically the decade doesn't end until next New Year's Day, but why fight the almost unanimous delusion?). The last ten years have been simply calamitous both on a personal and on a global level, and I for one am eager to bid this span of years adieu. As a sort of New Year's Eve catharsis, then, I am going to rehearse the reasons, both personal and general, that I am glad to see the end of the "Noughties" and 2009. Then I'm going to turn my face forward and move into the next ten years of my life and dwell on the past no longer.

First, why the US and the world would like to forget the first ten years of the young millenium:
9-11, Hurricane Katrina, the Indian Ocean tsunami, the great earthquakes in Pakistan, Gujarat (India), and Bam (Iran), the Burmese cyclone, the Tonga/Samoa tsunami, countless earthquakes and other seismic events in Indonesia, the Iraq War, the Afghan War, mega-terrorist attacks in Bali, Madrid, London, Beslan, and Mumbai, the anthrax attacks, swine flu hysteria, the Patriot Act, the end of the dot-com bubble, the end of the housing bubble, the financial panic of fall 2008, the Great Recession, the Department of Homeland Security, the Bush and Obama bailouts of mega-corporations, double-digit unemployment, the Virginia Tech massacre, the Amish schoolgirl massacre, so-called "health care reform," Lady Gaga, Paris Hilton, and the inexplicable popularity of torture movies like Saw.

Second, why I would like to rewind to January 2000 and have another go at things: All of the above, plus a failed marriage that died a long, slow death, a lawsuit and calumnies from an individual (and fellow church member) I had once counted as a friend, a career that wasn't, years of unending penury, the death of my one remaining (and favorite) grandparent (my "Pop-pop"), my father's spinal tumors, the unexpected death of my favorite student last spring, and my struggle, over the last couple of trying years, to perceive a clear sense of purpose in my life.

All these things (and many others besides) I hereby leave in the past.

There have been positives, however. I finished my PhD in 2004, and my blessed daughter arrived the following year. I spent part of 2000 and 2001 in Sri Lanka, and had a magical time. Ditto for last summer's three-week India junket. I also did a 5 week summer road trip to Alaska back in 2007 with my brother, and have been to Mexico and Honduras besides.

The other evening, I switched on NPR on the way back from Altoona, and Tchaikovsky's 6th Symphony was playing. It reminded me of a time, before this decade was ever born, when I was a rank sentimentalist and an incurable romantic. Events of recent years and months have, alas, all but extinguished those traits, but, come New Year's Eve, I hum a few bars of Auld Lang Syne, and both sentiments come rushing back. As the hours roll inexorably toward midnight, I can summon a parade of faces of friends and loved ones past who are gone, remember the bright hopes and optimism of my gaudy youth, and wonder anew at the capacity of this vale of tears to temper our rash designs and desires, to quench youthful enthusiasm, and to burst the illusions of the naive. So it often seems.

Yet I look forward now, not backward. In the coming year I see my little daughter continuing to grow and mature, the pain of her parents' divorce ever diminishing. I see continued progress in the one project (aside from my daughter) that seems destined to give me some kind of legacy, my slow but steady progress toward decipherment of the Indus Valley script. I look forward to a May trip to Costa Rica with my best friend, whom I have not seen in several years. I see continued inprovement in my aikido and jujitsu and in my physical conditioning. I see the possibility of beginning to actually save money once again, once the voracious taxman has had his claim. I see a life consecrated to academic pursuits, since another romantic relationship does not appear to be in the cards. I see making time to get back in the woods now and again. I see progress in spirituality, personal organization, and productivity.

I hope that, in 365 days, I will be able to reread this post and see that it has been fulfilled every whit. Happy New Year 2010!