A time of year when we all seek to be what we have never been, what we have hoped we might be, what we have no hope of ever being. In short when our expectations are at an all-time high.
Whether we have sat and seriously pondered our failings, been informed of them by others, or simply think by dint of a turned page in the calender we will miraculously be changed into a new, shiny, perfect human being, we all (or at least most of us) feel there is a chance that the coming year we - and it - will be better than what has gone before.
This belief goes back to pagan times when the Winter solstice heralded better days ahead - a fairly predictable superstition. One of my not too distant ancestors was a self-styled druid, also a chartist and also even more weird, Welsh. The only things I appear to have inherited from him are a seriously bolshy attitude to most of life's little vagaries and the very superstitious habit of crossing my fingers and touching wood. (simultaneously) not easy!
This, however, I have been informed by many people is in fact not a pagan practice at all - the cross being that on which Our Lord was crucified and the touching wood, that of the cross in question.
This leads me to the suspicion that not all superstition is in fact just that, but that it may have its roots in more acceptable theology.
leading me to believe rightly or wrongly that perhaps not all superstition leads to perdition.
Not a serious thesis but perhaps a different way of viewing the prospect/s of a New Year.
A Happy and healthy one to all who read this. And those who don't
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