It’s New Year’s Eve— a time for reflection, a time for plans. But first: is this whole deal just a human construct? Certainly, the ball dropping in Times Square is man-made. The calendar too—our best attempt to organize what we observe. Yes, the Earth spins around the Sun. We didn’t create that. But is there a naturally fixed point that marks the beginning? I don’t think so.
Saying it’s the New Year is like claiming we’ve found the beginning of a circle. It’s a helpful idea, but it’s still just an idea. Each planet in the solar system traces its own orbit. Each orbit could be called a “year.” But the length of a year varies from planet to planet. That’s fine. No problem there.
The Real Question
How do we know when it starts? Is it the stroke of midnight? The sunrise?
January 1st? It’s a matter of perspective and relativity. From my chair, I might say the day starts when the sun rises. But I know better. The sun doesn’t rise. It doesn’t set. Daylight is constant—just as night is the shadowed side of the same turning world. I know this. But I ignore it. Because the construct helps me measure. It’s like an inch—not a universal truth, but the width of some king’s knuckle bone. Still, it gives me ground for my fulcrum.
The Great Circular Lie
Technically, every day is a New Year, depending where you begin the count. But we’ve decided that January 1st is the place to pin the ribbon. So we live with our fib— 365 days that don’t truly exist, marking a New Year that could start anywhere. Maybe someday we’ll install a brass ring on the celestial carousel— a fixed marker that tells us where the circle truly begins. Until then: We live by the story we’ve told ourselves. And it mostly works.
Final Thought
For the sake of knowing, there’s too much fact that isn’t fact at all. My head hurts.
A Work Progressing 