ArticleI have been a journalist more than 50 years. When I began, reporters were often shabby men – unlike today’s clean-cut young idealists – for whom it was an article of pride that they could file a story over the phone while drunk.
I never did that simply because I loathe being drunk. But I have to admit that I like a drink, possibly more often than health guidelines suggest (my doctor helpfully defines drinking too much as drinking more than he does).
Therefore, on Wednesday I will give up alcohol for several months, as I did this year.
It seems from casual conversations that about a quarter of the adult population of Australia will be joining me.
So why January 1? Why not December 29 or July 23? Of course, it’s as good a day as any other, but for many people it’s a better day than most. And the reason is the psychological importance of the calendar sliding from 2024 to 2025, plus perhaps the fact that many people are on holiday and have time for a little self-reflection.
One of the endlessly fascinating things about our species is the way we seek to impose significance and rituals on our lives, from birth, marriage and death, to the passing of the seasons, to following a sports team.
We need to find, or project, meaning on what to some is a random and hostile universe. I am not the first to notice that what humans need above all is meaning, purpose and hope.
Christians find ultimate meaning in Jesus Christ, whose birth we commemorated last Sunday. As American theologian Dan deWitt notes, the gospel, which tells of God entering human history as an infant, gives an explanation for our existence, clarity for our confusion, grace for our guilt, meaning for our mortality, and answers for our adversaries.
New Year’s resolutions are a good if minor example of our need for optimism. Despite the supposed wisdom of age, I really approve of self-improving resolutions. It speaks of a sense of hope that we can change ourselves – even if this is mostly, as Samuel Johnson said of a man marrying for the second time, the triumph of hope over experience. And in changing ourselves we can change the world.
This optimism may be futile – I have previously reported that only 8 per cent of people keep their resolutions all year, and that the second Friday in January is known as “quitters’ day”. Nevertheless, the aspiration to improve is surely a good one, and much better than its absence.
So, optimism being in short supply as 2025 looms into view, I see this as a Good Thing, with a capital G and T (and we know what else that stands for).
Barney Zwartz, a senior fellow of the Centre for Public Christianity, was religion editor of The Age from 2002 to 2013. This article first appeared in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.