A very shiny new 2012 to you.
Here are some happy thoughts from Mr Mark Twain to get you started with your coffee, on this sunny Brisbane day . . .
New Year’s is a harmless annual institution, of no particular use to anybody save as a scapegoat for promiscuous drunks, and friendly calls and humbug resolutions.
(Mark Twain)
Clearly a ’bah humbug’ kind of person from 1 January to 31 December, enjoying every miserable sweet moment with a smile. I wonder if he was really funny to be around or intensely irritating. I see him on the shores of one of those formerly pristine Hawaiian beaches, writing and observing Polynesian customs in his own eclectic way. There he is, sipping an early version of a pina colada, enjoying the coconut milk, rum and pineapple flavours, savouring the physical taste of the drink along with the metaphorical taste of his own witticisms about life, the universe and everything.
As this is the coffee hour rather than the cocktail hour, and I am not on the shores of a breezy tropical beach, but here in burby inner city Brisbane, the witticisms are few, and the reflections transparently shallow. But, I have one un-novel idea, which is laudable, given the proximity of last year, this year and a few alcoholic beverages in between.
Idea #1 for 2012
Environmental advice: Save on neurones – don’t make any New Year’s resolutions.
I didn’t make any. Not a one. This puts me ahead I believe. There is nothing to be broken, nothing to feel remorse about, nothing to fear, no guilt to carry, no high bars to aim for. This is very positive news. Relief surges through me. I won’t be paving hell with any of my resolution flotsam or jetsam.
New Year’s Day: Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.
(Mark Twain)
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