We Live In A Political World: #365 / Grand Finale!

Click Here For The Blog In The Original

Click this link if you would like to see some additional pictures of extravagant New Year's Eve celebrations from around the world. That's Sydney Harbor, shown above.

December 31st is always our "Grand Finale." That's the way our calendar works. Tomorrow, we will have a whole New Year to contend with, and I'll restart the numbering of these blog postings, with a post labeled #1.

Since my daughter was born on New Year's Eve, I have a built-in reason to remember that December 31st is not just an "ending." It's a beginning, too!

Next year (just one day away) offers us an opportunity to do something new, and different - something unexpected - something never really ever tried before. When we do things like that - new things, unexpected things (and we can do them any day, of course) - we change the world.

So, on this New Year's Eve, when I want to send everyone who might be reading this blog posting a "Happy New Year" message, I have an in-family reminder that "new" means "different." New means a new beginning, a whole new opportunity to do something that will change how things are.

[We do need to make some significant changes, just in case you haven't noticed].

Whatever has been expected, whatever has been past practice, whatever everybody expects us to do.... We don't have to do it. We don't have to conform to expectations, as though our actions were "determined." If you have been reading this blog, this past year, you know that I have roundly rejected this "we are determined" misunderstanding of the reality we inhabit. I have roundly rejected the claims of those who try to convince us that "free will" does not exist.

We are not "determined." We are free to choose and free to act. And if we will do some things that we haven't done in the past... Well, that's the way we will "make a difference." That is the way we will "change the world."

[We do need to do that, just in case you haven't noticed].