New Years' Day Bottle

A few links:

• Lots of things have changed since we ended a decade. Here’s a couple. [Source via Twitter]
• The often plucky and quixotic former New York Knicks and Houston Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy imparts wisdom about leadership. [Steve’s HR Technology]
• The rumors of Jay-Z’s membership in the Illuminati continue with this ebullient and artsy video, featuring Swizz Beats and a sample from tech-band of last year Justice. Needless to say, this is my anthem of the year, demonic references or not. [YouTube]
• I know that Haiti’s independence day passed on the 1st, but my cousin Vanessa taught me about this Haitian tradition. It’s called Soup JouMou. Find out more here. [Wikipedia]
• 9-year-old Anthony Maldonado’s murder reminds me of when people in my neighborhood were stabbed to death over a pair of Jordans. The recession is not just economic. [New York Daily News]
• Non-web designers beware: do not pull these stunts on us. You will be outed. [The Oatmeal]
• Yes, I’ve temporarily disabled all the content on my main spot. It’s about the future. [The Jose Vilson]

I believe that famous New Year’s song’s first part,

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne ?

CHORUS:For auld lang syne, my jo,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

Frankly, I had no urgency to really sing it or give it thought until I started to read some of the conversations had by many around New Year’s time. Some people questioned the validity of New Year’s resolutions while others held fast to the idea that there’s a “newness” to the year so there was no need to criticize people who wanted to make New Year’s resolutions.

I too had to give this some serious thought. Sometime in the first week of December, I mentally jotted some clear and ostensible goals for what the rest of my life might look like. While I’ll not mention most of these goals (since everyone will see these come to the fore within the next couple of months), I also saw the value of my impatience. New Year’s Day generates too many people making long lines at the treadmills at gyms, stocking up on vitamins and doctor’s appointments, reserving their soon-to-be-cancelled plane tickets to popular mystical destinations with promises to flush away their tribulations and regrets with the previous year.

Our attempts at measurements of time, in the perspective of time, is cute at best, but mostly hollow. The one true thing I’ve found with respect to time is that we can only control what we do while it passes. If we decide to exercise patience for some things or execute quickly, the important part is to do so intelligently, with strong motivation, and with respect to your own history. Here are some things to ask:

• Who will decide whether you’ve moved on from some ugly episode in the previous year?
• How will you do it?
• When will you actually do what you said you would?
• What’s your motivation for making these things happen?
• If the need to wash something away is so pressing, why wait until January 1st?

It’s not so much that I doubt people’s ability to change and do so purposely. It’s that I think we need to reconsider what we define as the “new year.” What does your “new year” look like?

Jose, who really doesn’t wanna go to school tomorrow. Just like in old times.