Morning Coffee (86)

Greetings, fellow Coffee drinkers. Today is the first day of the New Year, which will likely be a lot like the last year. For the first two months, we’ll all struggle with the new number on dates on checks and other things, which will provide varying degrees of amusement for a bit before we settle back into the mundane grind. But wait, we have an election to look forward to this year, which is somehow different from the last two years, which we can simply refer to as the prelude to presidential politics.

But more than all that cynicism, I suppose that this is a time for reflection, isn’t it? Do people not usually reflect on the past year and plan for the next? I suppose that most do the reflection part just before the ball drops; reviewing the past year with the mixed pains of nostalgia and relief. Most who know me wouldn’t take me for one who does an inordinate amount of reflection, and that’s a correct assessment. But I do take time to do reflect, or lament depending on the item of reflection. My reflections aren’t normally contingent upon the passage of a specific date or season, but in this case they are. I suppose today’s a convenient date; more than convenient. Appropriate maybe. Today is an appropriate day, for a number of reasons.

The past year has been a roller-coaster ride. I’ve come perilously close to losing everything. Well, maybe not everything, but everything that matters anyway. This time last year, I believed, truly believed that it was all gone. No since getting into specifics, since they’re depressing, and somewhat moot, because in the present, I was wrong; no matter how much I believed it then; no matter how true it might have been then, I can now say I was wrong. I’m glad I was wrong. Because being wrong means that I have it back. And today’s a good day, no, the perfect day, to celebrate that.

I don’t prefer our Morning Coffee to so much about me, as it should be mostly our virtual meetings in a virtual coffee shop somewhere, discussing the not-so-virtual issues of the day. Generally, I’ll keep “Me” out of it. But for today…

Word of the Day: Zeitgeist (noun): [Often capitalized] The spirit of the time; the general intellectual and moral state or temper characteristic of any period of time.

On This Day in History: Today, Roman Consuls began their year-long terms in office beginning in 153 BCE. The Julian Calendar was first used today in 45 BCE. In 404 CE, the last known gladiatorial competition in Rome took place. Muhammad set out on this day in 630 to take Mecca, which he did without bloodshed. The importation of slaves into the US ceased in 1808, and 55 years later, the Emancipation Proclamation takes effect in Confederate territory. Ellis Island opens in 1892. The ball is dropped in Time Square for the first time in 1908 to symbolize the beginning of the New Year at midnight. Nazi Germany passes the Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring in 1934. While mobilizing America’s industry and gearing up for war, the Office of Production Management bars the sale of new cars and trucks to civilians in 1942. While a young PFC stands vigilant duty in the barracks on Camp Courtney, Y2K proves unexciting in 2000. And finally, in 2001 your loyal Brewer of the Coffee was married.

“If a man does not know to what port he is steering, no wind is favorable to him.” - Seneca