Well, I missed sending out a Daily Dose yesterday. Hopefully this one makes up for it.
Now, not to state the obvious, but its a new year. A new dawn! And yet the “new year” is an arbitrary construct of western civilization.
Yes, we “complete” a revolution around the sun once every 365 days (plus about six hours), but the day which we track as the start of the new year — today, January 1st, of course — was declared by Julius Caesar in 46 B.C.E.
1,600-some-odd years later, we’re still using it. But it could literally be any other day and it would work just the same.
Let’s consider the ancient Babylonians, who used the spring equinox in March to mark the changing of their year. And then on the Chinese calendar, which is based on the lunar cycles, the new year may start between January 21st and February 20th.
Of course, for most things China now uses the Gregorian calendar — which is basically the Julian calendar but with a more accurate calculation of leap years. So when it comes to business and the other pragmatic things that run our modern lives, we all have to agree on one day upon which to reset our calendar.
But teddy bear cholla in this photo have no modern business to attend to, and they certainly don’t give a crap if the new year “starts” today or not. They just care that the sun comes up every day that we make our trip around our life-giving star.
So I propose we not take the “new year” too seriously. Most of the time its wise to appreciate how we’re just a bunch of oxygen based life-forms careening wildly through space on a planet somehow suited for us to survive on it. It’s no minor miracle that we’re here and we’re just one asteroid collision away from it all going away.
When it comes to worrying about stupid things, I’m as guilty as anyone — but look, our time here is gift. New year resolutions be damned, let’s just have a good time, be kind to other living things, and maybe figure out a way to not self-extinct our species so future generations of humans can enjoy this beautiful little planet we’ve been blessed with.
Happy new year,
-Jake
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