Year End..

Wow.. Final week of 2010 already.. Just seems like 52 weeks ago we went through all this.. Oh wait...




Yeah, final week of 2010. What this will not be is a retrospective. You can go pretty well anywhere to do that, and besides, I hate those things.

No, actually this is something that will actually verbalize something that I’ve always felt around this time of year. Every year for probably the last 20 or so, I’ve gotten depressed in December. I don’t know what causes it. I don’t know why it happens, but it does. The depression always seems to get worse between Christmas and New Year’s. I think it’s mostly due to the fact another year’s ending. More stuff in the history books, etc. I mean, good year, bad year, best year ever, it all ends. Another year starts and it’s a new start but not really.

The last few years I haven’t even stayed up to midnight to see the year change over. I think I was in bed at 11 last year. I don’t party so that doesn’t keep me up. I don’t know. I may be in bed early again this year. I may not be. I may just avoid the New Year’s Eve specials, since they’ve all seemed to go downhill over the last 5-10 years. Or, I may just watch the one from Niagara Falls.. And that’s only to see the Barenaked Ladies perform. (By the way, they really need to come back to Oshawa.. Or Peterborough)

So really, other than celebrating the fact that the earth hasn’t imploded, exploded, melted down, drowned, or just destroyed for an interstellar bypass, what are we celebrating on December 31? Are we celebrating the fact that we’ve had a good year, filled with memories and friends? Or are we celebrating the fact that it’s another holiday where the main idea is to drink yourself stupid? To many people, it seems that the second ties in with the first. Celebrating the year with friends and family WHILE drinking yourself stupid.

To me, the end of the year reminds me both of what’s gone on and what’s passed by. It may not always be pretty, or really even memorable, but it’s the past. And really, that’s where the depression comes from: knowing that another year has gone down the crapper and nothing’s really happened.

Who knows.. Maybe I just need to look at things in a different perspective. At the same time, maybe this is just me.. Or, maybe more people go through the same thing, but never really thought about it, or put it to words. In any event, whatever your feelings, and plans.. Have a good one this December 31. Don’t drink yourselves too stupid. And in 365 I’ll probably write something similar..