What’s in a new year?
Dear Editor,
Many are rightfully hopeful with the ushering in of a new year.
It is in man to anticipate and want change. It is the reason a certain song by Sam Cooke,
A Change Is Gonna Come, has been popularised.
And the mere fact that someone is excited to ditch the passing year is in itself a commentary on the year in exit — usually unfulfilled dreams or deferred hopes or its emphasis on bloodshed, trauma, road deaths, and international wars.
Perhaps the outgoing year has been vitilated by a rise in cybercrimes, economic hardship, diseases, and a growing state of injustice among ordinary citizens. Such disappointment is often the foundation for new resolutions of the like: We have to do better! It cannot be business as usual!
Yet such impassioned calls, although well meaning, will be words among many that will unfortunately dim with fading of the year unless the words themselves are the products.
The vibrant spirit of light and jubilee that welcome the birth of a new year is invariably the crest of a hope that will keep declining with each day. And yet a simple but overlooked glide to a more fulfilling life is Jesus’s nugget on the Mount of Olives — maybe too clear to see:
“Happy are those conscious of their spiritual need…
Happy are the mild-tempered…
Happy are the merciful…
Happy are the peacemakers…”
Homer Sylvester
h2sylvester@gmail.com
