Happy New Year

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About 25 minutes south of here, there is a sign along the interstate highway: "Welcome to Connecticut." In a 70-mph flash, traffic moves from one state to another. The weeds and maples that grow along the roadside are the same as in Massachusetts. The farmlands at a distance hardly seem to change. The road is as black and smooth before the sign as after it. Something notable has happened ... and it's hardly notable at all. Same ol' same ol'.

This year, Samoa was the first in the world to cheer in the New Year. New Zealand was not far behind. It's already 2012 in those places while laggards in my neck of the woods wait for celebrations later tonight ... stuck in the ancient history of 2011. "Welcome to Connecticut."

Some are pretty upset that the Mayans (not) and others predict the end of the world in 2012. The world is busy ending all the time. Massachusetts becomes Connecticut -- welcome!

To hope and reflect -- both seem to be part of the human tapestry. Hope for the future. Reflect on the past. These are not 'bad' things, but with too much emphasis, too much reliance, they become things that really do screw the pooch. Where past and future fill the heart and mind, the present often goes begging and as Beatle John Lennon once observed, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."

Is there any moment that does not carry with it the sign that says, "Welcome to Connecticut?" Where anyone has been is important. Where anyone is going is important. But could such things ever be more important than where anyone actually is? And without getting a handle on what is, could what was or will be have any consequential usefulness? "Was," "will be" ... who makes this shit up?

Welcome to Connecticut.

Happy New Year!
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