A New Year

Realism can be all too overpowering at times, and for me, I am most susceptible to it around the holidays. Instead of becoming immersed in the "spirit of the season" I tend to be a critical observer explaining away the magic and pointing out the hidden strings. I suppose I am a "Scrooge", but I can't help it.
In some ways I admire the "ignorance is bliss" attitude that the holidays tend to evoke. It fascinates me that an arbitrary day is chosen as a reason to celebrate and almost the entire human race participates. I'd like to blissfully buy gifts and string lights, drink more, eat more, and take time off of work as a means to celebrate a day in time that we collectively designated as having a purpose different from all other days, but I can't. I'm too overwhelmed by the reality of it. For example, a "new year" begins with the tick of a clock hand and we have a chance to start over again. At that moment we can make resolutions to change our selves and we can focus on the future full of possibilities because it is NOW a new start. But we simply choose to see this moment as the chance to start a new; there is no clock that has wound down and is now restarted to tick for another 365 days, the clock is always ticking. We adhere to this conception of time starting over and allow IT to guide our behaviors, even though we decided when it would start and end. And what's more is that everyone agrees that time starts over in this way, so it makes it all the more acceptable to believe it.
I'm not "bah-humbug" about designating a day in time in which to celebrate, in fact I think it is perfectly human and necessary to our survival as a species. The human perception of the world is organized by giving meaning to events and objects. I find it both fascinating and terrifying how powerful perceptions and belief can be, and alas, that is the rub. It is this strength in the collective belief of that arbitrary day having a certain meaning that creates the "spirit of the season", and I can't see past that reality. Thus, my inability to have a dispensable belief in reality leaves me without much holiday cheer, and ready for the end of this "new year's day".