One of the more notable birth dates I recall belonged to a gentleman, long since gone to his heavenly reward, who came wailing into this world on Jan. 1, 1900.
I always considered him to be the ultimate New Year’s baby, born as he was on such an easy date to remember for geeks bearing gifts. How could anyone forget a date that trumps being born on most any other you’d care to name, including an arrival on the Fourth of July as a feisty, bawling Yankee Doodle Dandy for the ages?
Ownership of such a memorable birth date might be a double-edged sword for some people, I suppose, depending upon their outlook on life. Easy to remember, even for those whose memories are suspect. But hard to forget for those who tend to make a career of fretting about advancing age. When it is common knowledge that your birth date is Jan. 1, 1900, there are not a lot of places to hide when the age thing comes up in conversation.
If one has had the exquisite timing to be born on opening day of a year that ends in zeros — preferably two or three of them — one can easily calculate precisely how old he is on any given day of his life without going in search of a slide rule to do the math. That is more than can be said for some born on less auspicious calendar dates.
Such are the weighty matters an idle mind contemplates on the eve of New Year’s Day, 2012. Along with these thoughts:
If there is one thing the new year brings in addition to New Year’s Day babies and getting used to writing “2012” as part of the dateline on checks and correspondence, it would be a gut feeling that the more time marches relentlessly onward, the more things are likely to remain pretty much the same. There may be a new year at hand, with all the promise that implies for positive change. But anyone who suspects that it will be business as usual out in the real world probably will not be much disappointed.
For openers, many multimillionaire Washington politicians will continue to remain out of touch with the average American struggling to get by. Not long after professing her solidarity with Occupy Wall Street protesters — the so-called “99 percenters” — in their crusade against the wealthiest one percent of this country’s residents, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California jetted off to Hawaii for the Christmas holiday.
The media in Hawaii reported that the San Francisco Democrat, who — according to the Center for Responsive Politics is the ninth wealthiest member of Congress with a net worth of $196 million — checked in to a $10,000 per-night suite at an exotic four-seasons resort.
So much for feeling the pain of the protesters in this winter of their discontent.
According to a New York Times analysis of financial disclosure, members of Congress got, on average, 15 percent richer during the past six years, while the average American’s net worth dropped 8 percent. Polls show that Congress is held in but single-digit approval by a disgusted public that seemingly has become resigned to the probability that the gridlocked divided-government situation currently in vogue there will continue in the new year.
Maybe the November elections will end the stalemate. Or maybe not. As my farmer friend up the road likes to say, “There are two maybes to that proposition.”
Still, Alexander Pope counseled us long ago that hope springs eternal in the human breast. We are reminded of that truism daily when the weather page in the morning newspaper shows that we have gained yet another minute of daylight in our primal quest to spring free of winter’s clutches.
As I write, we are four minutes to the good over the ration of daylight we were allotted upon winter’s arrival roughly 10 days ago. Hope, augmented by the Burpee seed catalog and the University of Maine Black Bear baseball schedule, is alive and well. Soon we will be preparing to slog up March Hill and through glorious mud season to the other side of spring, when all things — save perhaps for ever getting to nod off in a $10,000 per-night hotel suite — will seem possible.
Happy New Year.
BDN columnist Kent Ward lives in Limestone. His email address is maineolddawg@gmail.com.
My sentiments exactly, Kent, in reference to Ms. Pelosi of the so-called 1%, but the protestors do not seem to know that, do they?
Interesting….this crop of protesters. What I’ve seemed to notice about them is….they don’t want any one person becoming a spokesperson for them. They discuss requests from powerful “outsider” people and decide amongst themselves if they’ll even let them speak for them or to their assembly. John Lewis-D was rejected and I suspect anyone else who they consider belonging to the 1% (especially Nancy Pelosi) would be voted down in giving them a soapboxto give a speech in their midst . All the wiggling, jiggling fingers have to come to a consensus on any and all decisions.
Nah, the protestors love the left. Full stop.
Great, great column Kent. Our Lords know better than us, don’t they?? But we’ll still carry on, carry on.