A Different New Year

Happy New Year!

New Year’s Day found me restrained in the sling for some afternoon fun. Well, not completely enjoyable, but definitely with a happy ending. It was a good start for the year. Mrs. Lion did a great job, especially with my happy ending. As she suggested in her post yesterday, the ending was delightfully oral. I’m sure her post later today will give you further details.

The holidays are over. I loved the extra time we spent together. After living together for fifteen years, we still love each other’s company. Neither of us make New Year’s resolutions. Actually, I don’t think the holiday season is a particularly good time to review the previous year. Why would you pick the darkest days of the year to measure your successes and failures?

Wouldn’t it be better to do this in July when the days are long and warm? I don’t know about you, but when it is cold and dark I am considerably less optimistic than in the light of summer. So, if we celebrated New Year on, say June 30, reflecting on the past and making resolutions for the future would be a lot less difficult. Sun breeds optimism, darkness grief.

In our part of the world, it’s cloudy almost nine months of the year. Our summers are almost unfailingly sunny. Winter here is gloomy, damp and chilly. Yes, it is warmer than much of the country, but I really hate damp chill.

On weekends, when we play, it is almost always during the day. We reserve the evenings for snuggling and watching TV. Anything sexual during the week tends to be relatively short. Extended play is too much for weekday nights. By the time the dinner dishes are clean and our showers  done, we are ready for bed. In the summer, we have more energy after dinner. It’s still light outside and that seems to give us both more energy.

In the dim past before our modern religions, people recognized the need to add light to the darkest days of winter. Both Christmas and Hanukah stem from the ancient celebration of Yule. This holiday was timed to the winter solstice; the shortest day of the year. Celebration and feasting were a perfect antidote to the cold, glum reality of winter.

Our ancestors didn’t celebrate the new year in January. It was some time in November, as I learned. The point is that traditional holidays don’t have to move if we shift the new year. I’m saving my resolutions for July.