The Day After the End of the World or The Year of the Phoenix

I don't know if you'd call it a tradition, but I've taken to writing little year-end retrospectives each New Year's Eve.  So here we are! . . . and I have very little to say about 2012 (well, less than usual).  Truth be told, I'd been staring at a blinking cursor for the better part of an hour until I realized that it's hard to write about nothing.  2012 was sort of the year that never was.  At best, some type of weird limbo period in my life; a car idling in neutral for 365 days.

I can't tell if this minor funk has something to do with the life odometer going from the "twos" to the "threes."  The impending dread that aging brings decay and deterioration, and that the good times are in the rear view mirror.  Easy to think such thoughts when you're traveling the road of life sans companion.  I guess these types of thoughts made it easy for me to buy into the whole Mayan prophecy thing that the world would end on 12.21.12.  Well, at least enough to use it to justify my paralysis in 2012.  What IF the world ends on that day?  Wouldn't that somehow justify/excuse my do-nothing-ness in 2012?  It would.  And why ruin the End of the World by adding hobbies and girlfriends and such into your life!?  Right?  Right.  And so I waited (with anticipation? anxiety? eagerness, perhaps?) for the impending doom.

Like a fool, as it turns out.  Of course, as you know, 12.21.12 came and went with little fanfare. Certainly with no End of the World.  And so went my master plan for 2012 of obliteration into the cosmos (Ok, I guess that's a bit melodramatic, but you know me).  In any case, on 12.22.12 I consulted the font of all knowledge End-of-the-World related to investigate the failure of the Mayan prophecy.  And according to the Oracles of the Internet, the Mayans didn't actually predict that the world would end on that date; only that one particular cycle would end.  After which a new cycle would begin, and the world would be reborn anew.

Rebirth.

I like that.  I mean, isn't that the whole point of why we celebrate the New Year?  To cast off the dregs of the prior year; to drink away the regrets and missed opportunities; to look forward to the possibilities of the next 365-day cycle?  For me, I think a great handful of things need a good ol' fashioned rebirthing (or at the very least a reboot).  But in that grab bag, the one item that requires the most attention is the one thing I like doing the most--writing things.

So here we are again!  A new blog for a new year (and hopefully a new era).  As for the title, I suppose it's ambiguous enough to cover a lot of topics.  Truth be told, I have no idea what I'll be filling this space with.  Well, that's a lie.  In the spirit of the world NOT ending, I've promised my friends that I will once again confront the beast that is dating.  With sword in hand and heart on sleeve, I shall charge into the dragon's lair to find the princess!  Or at the very least to be informed that she is in another castle!  Either way, I imagine there will be some things to say about that.  So don't turn that dial, kids!

One final note.  I've been informed that next year is the Year of the Snake.  Bollocks to that!  Who wants to be associated with such a slimy and sneaky little devil (not to mention the likes of Draco Malfoy)?  So, I've taken the liberty of recasting 2013 as the year of the Phoenix.  Rebirth, remember?  So everyone, I hope as we cross the threshold from The-Year-That-Never-Was into 2013, you brush off those ashes and soar.

Fly free, y'all.

--KM

"The phoenix hope, can wing her way through the desert skies, and still defying fortune's spite; revive from ashes and rise"."