I lost in death three people I loved dearly in a period of sixty days. Not just people I knew, but people I cared about, thought about, and prayed for every single day, and I am confident they felt the same about me. I have no idea how to approach filling a void like the three of them left.
Time is an artificial concept; in the grand scheme, there's no hand turning a page on the past 365 days as if a new chapter is beginning. Events that determine changes in our lives have nothing to do with subdividing the cycles of the sun into easily digestible bite-size parts, or a ball of light exploding in Times Square. That being said, the beginning of a new year does serve a purpose as a rallying point, as in, "If I stay focused and keep moving ahead, I'll be able to say 366 days later that I took a bad situation and improved it."
I will have lived a good life if I can say 2011 was the worst year of my existence. Here's hoping. But, as the song says, "Nothing changes on New Year's Day."
Ladies and Gentlemen, from the legendary 1983 LP War, U2 (before they got full of themselves).
Click here for the superior LP version.
