Tannishblog

"The new year is a blank slate upon which to write," or some such… That is the gist of a nice email greeting from Dailyzen.com. I awake this late morning to a slate written upon with a sloppy hand. Things like "I could get used to Jamison’s Irish Whiskey," and "Two in the morning? Most days I get up at four," vying with the perennial "Work tomorrow, playtime’s over." If it wasn’t for the familiarity of the blocky "N’s" and the rounded "E’s," I might wonder who was so callous.

Last night’s annual movie fest, a Tim Burton/ Johnny Depp affair, worked for the ladies - Daughter, Wife and a girlfriend of hers - but this lone dude kept gravitating around his PC games. The magic hour came and all three shouted the incantation "Happy New Year" and returned to the final feature, "Willy Wonka." I stood with empty shot glass in hand thinking the usual Tannish drivel.

New Years is an arbitrary demarcation. Nothing is new at all, we’ve been here before. Finally, Zen thoughts emerge from the bog: Beginnings are meaningless as all things arise and fall continually. In a world where there are no beginnings, there are no ends. Each moment gives rise to the next in an endless cycle of causation and karma. Life rides a river of time marked only by continuing changes, whether looking at a microcosm of individual existence or a macrocosm of galactic movements, no real beginnings can be found.

Thus there really was no good reason to get sauced last night.