The Year In Review That Wasn't!

I really love this time of year!  All of the festivities surrounding the holidays, the family gatherings, the holiday lights, traditional Christmas carols sung loudly in the shower, remembering the reason we actually celebrate Christmas, and the warm feelings of Christmas' past (selectively devoid of all the actual family drama and tragedy).  All good stuff!  Good feelings, culminating with a crescendo of New Years Eve.  Still good.... Then!  Then, begins the onslaught of those dreaded "Year in Review" stories.  And they are everywhere!  It used to be that only the national network news agencies would do their pieces, Now every "Local News Action Channel-5" from here to Timbuktu has gotten in on the business.  It's as if the Christmas decorations all come crashing down to the cacophony of so-called-news pieces polluting the airwaves and doing real harm to the environment by consuming an additional 4 pages of local daily newspapers.... As if(!)....our sleepy community has 4 pages worth of publishable "year end highlights" to report!

Must we?...Really??

First, its the natural disasters, then politics, then the financial and/or personal scandals, then the sports reel in reverse then, the combination of all of the above, and finally, the sad parade of those that passed during the previous year, most of whom I really don't know.... do you?

Are we somehow obliged to recall the year now behind us simply because someone (as famous and they may have been) said: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
Are we really going to see a repeat performance Chaz Bono on "Dancing with the Stars" if we forget about it? God, I hope not because until 2 seconds ago I had forgotten about it!

I guess for me the past is just that... the past.  There is nothing we can do to change it and little we can do to change our reaction to it (well, short of years of expensive psychoanalysis).

I've had friends and acquaintances through the years (OK...family members too... but, none of you that are reading this), that live in the past.  Everything out of their mouths seems to be something that happened long ago.  I'm not passing judgment here... that obviously works for them.... I'm simply reporting the facts and trying to understand... But whether it's 10 years ago, last month, or yesterday.... by my account, it's gone! Never again to be here and now.  

Finito!  

But, that's not to say we don't learn from the past.... For instance, I'm never having the super-sized Margarita at On the Border ever again!  Too much sweet stuff, not enough Tequila!

And, I'll never again forget to take my toiletry zip-lock bag out of my carry-on luggage... you'd have thought I was Osama Bin Laden's nephew!

Maybe it's the eternal optimist in me that wants to believe that right now is the place to be.  Tomorrow will come in time, but right now I have the chance to make a difference. Right now I can be kind to someone.   Right now I can tell someone I love them (I love you guys!! - honest I do...- no really, I do!).

Right now I can do something that I may not be able to do tomorrow....

Right now, I really need to go for a ride and set my agenda for the year... and then, maybe change the oil in the Guzzi!  -LD