Well, another new year is upon us. And, as I do every year, I wonder “what’s so new about it?” The world continues to turn on its axis. The sun continues to rise each day (although I do note that every day is hotter than the same day in years past) and set each night, randomly creating a more or less beautiful scene in the sky. Babies are born and old people die and governments make war while the people want only peace. (I hear myself starting to sound like Kohelet.)
So, what’s so new? What changes? George Bernard Shaw said that if you can’t change yourself, you can’t change anything. I don’t think that’s entirely true, but it is true that the only thing we have the absolute power to change is ourselves. That self-change, however, can spark others. If I change myself – if I decide to do more to help others, to make a bigger difference in the world – to adopt a dog or a child or a cause – I can make change, I can make the coming year something new, I can make a better world.