4 - 10 January 2001
Issue No.515
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 4 - 10 January 2001 Issue No.515 |
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Plain Talk
It is that time of the year again, and as far as the media is concerned it is silly season. You don't open a newspaper or a magazine now without coming across quizzes, interviews and investigations about important events, books, marriages, divorces and even murders that have taken place in the year 2000. Every aspect of life is, it appears, fair game for the compilers of these farragoes of nonsense. Still, I suppose one can only be grateful that this year has not quite reached the maddening extent of last, when coverage of the 20th century on the eve of the 21st was rather more than blanket.
But tabulating past events, good, bad or neutral serves only as a reminder of the past, be it last year or last century. It allows people to reminisce; some think of dear ones they have lost, rising aspirations realised or frustrated, things they did or failed to do, old loves rekindled and more recent loves extinguished.
The eve of every new year is a time to consider. It is a time to be mellow, emotional, sentimental even. Often I wonder why sentimentality has acquired such derogatory connotations. After all, does it not derive from sentiment, the noblest feeling of man?
As a bon viveur I used to look forward to the celebrations that always accompanied the new year. In fact, I was always willing to celebrate even the opportunity to celebrate! I used to go out, make merry and when the clock struck midnight I would join the party to sing Auld Lang Syne.
"Lest old acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind
We'll drink a cup of kindness yet
For the sake of Auld Lang Syne."
We acted like children, kissing under the mistletoe and dancing "knees up mother Brown."I have always been an optimist, ever believing that every cloud has a silver lining. And I am still an optimist who believes that a glass is half full and not half empty. But in bidding farewell to an old year and welcoming a new one should, somehow, transcend one's optimism, sentimentality and love, and instead don the wisdom cap and try to be fair.
Yes, the year 2000 had its ups and downs like any other. It had its dark nights and bright days and we should be thankful for this. My apologies for sounding like the preacher I am not. I am just an ordinary man looking at what happened last year.
This New Year's Eve I embarked on what has become something of an annual ritual, a little rite that I have developed over the years and which, for me, marks the passing of the old year as much as any celebration.
I picked up my little telephone book and looked through the numbers to decide which to transfer to my new mini-directory and which to omit. All those whom I stopped, for one reason or another, dealing with, I did not include in my new book. But when it came to those who had passed away -- among whom is my only son -- I just couldn't cross them out. Perhaps I thought I'd be letting them down if I removed their telephone numbers. I realise I shall never call them again, but their phone numbers are like epitaphs reminding me of them. I've kept them all.
For me New Year's Eve is not only a moment for remembrance and for hope, but also a chance that comes only once a year to celebrate. So let us take the opportunity to celebrate and let us hope, too, that the next 12 months will be, as the cards inevitably wish us, "a prosperous and happy new year."
And let us also use the occasion as an act of remembrance, as a time when we can look back with as clear a head as we look forward, our view over the past year as unclouded as the view that lies ahead. Time passes, and it is down to each us not to forget.
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