It’s New Years Eve. I won’t be staying up this year. Not intentionally, at least. I’ll try to sleep. But if I don’t, it won’t be because I’m excited. Yes, it will be a new year. Yes, 2016, the year the internet hates, will be over. But life will go on. Nothing is going to change. I’ll have to learn to remember to write 2017 as the date instead of 2016, but the date isn’t going to change anything.

We might be mad. We might be really worked up over various things, although I will not mention them, lest tempers run high. We might think “What a rotten year! It must be the most awful year in existence.” But it’s not. It can’t be. We are so fixated on the ‘now’ that we can’t look back at history. Many awful things have happened this year, to be sure. But it’s not the worst year ever. And, yes, there is still the future. But when the ball drops in New York, or the clocks strike midnight, things won’t magically change.

So, yes, happy New Year. I hope it’s a good year. I hope things get better. But I won’t be staying up till midnight, because I don’t place my trust in the year 2017. It’s just another year, after all. But I think I’ll sleep in, anyway.