Rheto-Rick

In the December edition of the Project Understanding News, I announced that I would begin a blog on this website with the new year. If you have visited here regularly waiting for my blog to appear, I apologize. It hasn’t happened until now.

Yes, I know where the road leads that is paved with good intentions.

But now, at the end of February, I am finally getting it done. While I do not have any good reasons why I am so late, I do have a good rationalization.

See, I chose January 1, 2009, as the roll-out date for my blog, because it was the beginning of the new calendar year for people in Western Christian countries. But as the cartoon on this page clearly points out, when the new year begins is rather arbitrary. So, as an American, I missed the new year, but I still had a shot at the Chinese New Year.

OK, I missed that one too, but I still have almost seven months until the Jewish New Year. And I am weeks ahead of the spring equinox which has served as the beginning of the new year for many cultures over the ages.

My point is that the beginning of the year is an arbitrary concept. That the year is a cycle that ends and begins is undeniable. But when it begins and ends is up to each culture and society. What is more important than when the new year begins is what the new year means.

In virtually all societies, the transition from the end of the old year to the beginning of the new year is accompanied with reflection on the past and intentions and dreams about the
future.

So I declare this to be the beginning of a new year – a time when I will put all my past failings behind me and look to the future with hope and expectation. So watch this website to see how I do on this New Year’s intention.