I love the New Year. Do you?

I don’t party hard. I don’t dress up in a sparkly dress or dance all night drinking champagne. The last couple of years, I have gone to a friend’s house to have fun with a group of grownups and children. I like being able to take my son with me. He likes being able to stay up late.

Before my son was old enough to stay up to midnight, I would spend the change of the year writing. I wanted to be writing from the old year into the new.

Yet, it isn’t the New Year everywhere in the world. Not every country uses the same calendar. Do you use the Gregorian calendar, the Hebrew calendar, the Islamic calendar, the Indian calendar, the Chinese calendar, or the Julian calendar? What is a new year when time is marked differently in so many places?

I have students from countries that use different calendars, and when you ask them about their birthday, they have to think about it. They ponder whether to use their birthday date in their country or the date that would make sense to me. “By your calendar I am ____ years old, but by my country’s calendar I am _____ years old.”

I used to think a birthday was set in stone, but teaching people from other countries showed me otherwise.

Look up at the sky. Considering the speed of light, you’re seeing stars as they were thousands of years ago. A year on Earth isn’t the same as a year on Saturn. Good heavens. What is time?

What makes a resolution made today any different than one made on June 16th? Why do we care about calendars and numbers and dates?

I don’t know. I care. I care about birthdays and anniversaries. I want them noted or celebrated.

What dates matter to you?

As for resolutions, I don’t have any. Not really. I want to welcome whatever 2015 has in store. I want to be prepared for the nonsense and the problems. I want to be around to welcome the next New Year.

Glad you’re here. Thanks for reading.