First off all, hello and Happy New Year to all my friends and readers here on AFF! I know I have been gone a while and that I have also promised you a new one-shot soon. I haven't forgotten. But today is December 31st, New Years Eve here in California. A couple of my New Year Resolutions: drink more water, get more sleep, reconnect with old friends, read more books, etc. And also, I want to share with you guys one of my favorite poems about New Year's Eve:

December 31st by Richard Hoffman

All my undone actions wander
across the calendar,

a band of skinny hunter-gatherers,
blown snow scatteredd here and there,

stumbling toward a future
folded in the New Year I secure

with a pushpin: January's picture 
a painting from the 17th century,

a still life: Skull and mirror,
spilled coin purse and a flower.

This poem is one of my favorties to read about the New Year because it presents an idea that isn't very well-circulated around New Year's time. New Years are always about looking fondly back at old years and running out to greet the new one, about making new promises and renewing old ones. But Hoffman's poem looks at the new year as it pertains to the rest of our lives. And the underlying message of New Year's Eve is a memento mori, a skull in the middle of our canvas, a reminder that someday we are going to die. This was an idea that was popular during the 17th century up through the Victorian age and survives to this day, and the idea was to turn people's attention away from the superficiality of the temporal world and shift the focus onto the soul. Which brings us to our second symbol: the mirror, a symbol of inward reflection and self-knowledge, a tool that revolutionized the way we, as human beings, have come to know our inner selves. The mirror has been a way for us to both objectivize and recognize ourselves in our reflections, and has therefore also become a symbol of the human mind, which reflects and speculates as our eyes do in the mirror. Coins have been used as symbols of history and flowers, symbols of new life and growth. 

And so on this New Year's Eve, at the risk of sounding grim, let us remember our deaths, and let this memento mori make the brevity of the years all the more spectacular. Let us reflect on our souls and recognize ourselves. Let us learn from history, and above all, let us grow and look forward to the newness that awaits us, all our upcoming joys and upcoming mistakes, and all the keepsake moments in between. Life is short, so let the undone actions of last year slip into the next. Happy New Year!