Happy New Year

Yesterday's news was full of revellers. Tuning in to the ABC, it was hard to get any actual news through the desperate noise of what revellers were planning to do, where revellers were planning to be and how the police were going to deal with the most high spirited amongst them. By which I mean hooligans.

Lacking any substantial rites of passage and having stripped our major festivals of their meaning, we now attend to vapid shows of confected joy. Of course there is nothing wrong with sitting by the harbour and watching fireworks. I have done so myself. There may even be an attempt at papering over the obvious emptiness of the event with a slogan (such as eternity) aflame a giant landmark. Points for trying, I guess.

I was talking to a friend at my local pool yesterday morning. We reflected on how anti-climactic New Year's Eve was. The rituals that define the evening - alcohol, countdowns and fireworks - that's pretty much it, allow little or no opportunity to explore where we are and where we might be going. I guess I am talking about meaning. Festivals should surely in some way strive to have us think about the worthiness of our lives, or where we fall short. Perhaps the desire to make resolutions once filled this space, though now they are little more than a joke.

But Happy New Year regardless. There were some dark clouds in 2013 but also some great stories of human achievement, endurance and love.

You know, you can be serious and also have a good time.