The year-end tradition of wishing everybody a Happy New Year belongs to the oldest ones in history for all we know. We cannot identify its origin nor when it got started and it really does not matter. The fact remain that we do it anyway, year after year after year after year. But do we ever look back and inquire after-wards how ‘happy’ the new year was. No we do not, after all, there is never enough for reflection.
Without even trying to be approximately accurate, we know that for uncounted millions of people in America (and even many millions more around the world) 2010 was in fact NOT a Happy Year. They lost their jobs or never were employed again, they lost their homes and most of their investments, they became unexpectedly very sick and some even did not survive the past year as a result of it. How many people’s lives were severely changed as a result of traffic accidents or other such misfortunes? The fact is, we do not know the answer to these questions and yet, we are certain that many people wished these folks about a year ago: Happy New Year.
As for the upcoming year, only one thing is certain. Millions if not all the people will wish each other a ‘Happy New Year’ and we wonder how great it would be if it really came to pass for everyone. Yet we know better, don’t we all? The next year will be like any other before in that things will happen in the slightly different way for most people. There will be all kinds of things in the widest possible range for everybody as they live during 2011. Fortunes and misfortunes will happen, life and death in all its variations will occur and before we know it, for those of us who will still be around about 360 or days from now, we will all wish everybody we are with or whom we run into a Happy New Year 2012. This is probably the only thing we can predict with absolute certainty. After all what would be the alternative? Besides, we have to keep up the tradition of saying it, right?
It is in this spirit that we wish you all a Happy New Year 2011!