Word of the Week

New

Definition: already existing but seen, experienced, or acquired recently or now for the first time

Consider this...

It’s a New Year and this week’s word is “new.” Why reflect on a word that’s seemingly such a standard adjective?

“I’ve got a new pair of shoes.” “What’s new?” “Is this episode of 30 Rock new?”

New can be good, and that’s how we all like to think about the New Year. It’s a New Year so the economy will get better and things will start looking up. We wish people a happy, healthy and successful New Year. We make resolutions, which imply that from this moment forward, everything can be new and we can all be new - and better - people.

While I think there is a large value to this attitude and I do wish everyone all of these great things, I want to toss out two issues worth considering.

1. Being old is okay, too. We don’t place a high value on being old in this country. Everybody always wants the newest technology or the latest things. We buy anti-wrinkling creams so as to appear young and not old. Newer is better, we insist. The attitude isn’t always wrong, but let’s not undervalue the old. Who doesn’t love the feel of an old and worn pair of jeans or the way an album sounds on vinyl - a classic, which is to say “old,” medium for listening to music. In reinventing yourself for the New Year, don’t throw out everything that’s old about you. There are lots of great things about you - embrace them!

2. Every moment can be a “forever forward things are new” one. That may seem contradictory to the message of Issue One, but none of these ideas exists in isolation. That would be extreme. Let’s take the middle ground and incorporate a variety of ideas together. What I’m saying is, every day you can wake up in a new day and say, from this moment on, things will be different. I will do x, y and z now and not r, s, and t. Don’t think that you can only be who you want to be at the beginning of the year! Take every moment as one to embrace the things about yourself that you love and be the person you want to be (note: this is NOT an inducement to lose weight if you want to be thinner - I’m talking about the way you behave rather than the way you appear).

In any case, embrace the New but remember that it’s yang is the Old and both have to exist in harmony. Neither is bad or good, but thinking about both and the way they exist in your life is a valuable means of being who you want to be.

Happy New Year!