On New Year’s Eve 2021, I watched Michigan get destroyed in the Orange Bowl. If that was on any other day of the year, I probably would’ve called it a night. But, it was December 31, and who goes to bed before midnight on the last night of the year? I did, at 11:20 p.m.
As I get older, I tend to agree with this 2020 New Yorker piece by Sarah Miller in which she asks: What if our acknowledgment of every new year was merely clerical, like with most any other day?
This year, it merely preceded New Year’s Day, highlighted by mid-morning grocery shopping. Talk about an “any other day” activity.
Here’s an idea: Let’s shrug off most New Year’s Eve celebrations and only schedule them for the night before a new decade. It’ll be like the Olympics but further spread out and, presumably, without the corruption.
I suppose we need reasons to celebrate, but does it have to be New Year’s Eve, every year?
Put me down as a no.
Mike McClary 