Charcoal Drawings and Watercolors

Time has no divisions to mark its passage, there is never a thunder-storm or blare of trumpets to announce the beginning of a new month or year…it is only we mortals who ring bells and fire off pistols. ~Thomas Mann

The words of Mann are true, but…when I read his passage, I wonder about the spirit in which he wrote it.

Is it merely a statement of fact, or is he also mocking human behavior and its attempt to harness time…to take time, and somehow, define it?

I think the latter. Mann is, in all of his stoic, efficient, German manner, correct about the ambiguity and elusiveness of time.

However, “we mortals” have good reason, or at least a reason to mark the New Year with bells and an alcohol induced blaring of trumpets.

New Year’s Day is a time when many people gather to watch football, feast on pork and sauerkraut, and publicly (and foolishly) announce their resolutions for the coming year.

Some people view the day as just another day off from work.

Those same people oft times say that anytime of year is a good time to take stock and better yourself without the confines of a once a year resolution.

I myself, enjoy the festivities surrounding the New Year, but also understand the reasoning of those who eschew the tradition of making once a year promises.

My reason to celebrate, or at least observe the New Year, lies somewhere in between the aforementioned reasons, and it relates to the statement made by Thomas Mann.

I think…okay, I feel…that between 8 P.M. New Year’s Eve while partying, and 9 A.M. New Year’s Day when one wakes up (or is finally going to bed), time does, in a way, stand still.

As Mann said, “Time has no divisions…”, but during those precious few hours, we can harness the power of Janus and look both forward and backward.

We can visualize everything we have ever been and ever done in the stark and sometimes brutal contrast of black and white.

We can also see everything that we want to be and want to do in color…bright colors, that sometimes elude our sight because we do not take the time to notice them the other 364 days of the year.

The transition between the old and the new year is a razor thin balance between Rationalism and Empiricism, between regret and hope, between charcoal drawings and watercolors.

To me, it ushers in my view of life called, Simplisticism, and that view can be illustrated by the following picture.

The above picture is more than that of a kitschy, 1974, Six Million Dollar Man lunch box. It is a Christmas present from my antique show frequenting brother, Steve and his wife.

I laughed when I opened it up Christmas Day…more than laughing, I smiled because it reminded me of being nine years old watching the show with my brothers Steve and Marte’.

Rooting for Colonel Austin and Oscar to defeat the bad guys, we would share a frozen pizza blanketed in hot dogs and Velveeta and color the air with laughter over the bad acting and even worse dialogue.

It was the best of times.

It was a feeling of innocence I will never forget.

And while I have no desire to be nine again, it is a feeling I long to recapture.

And that my friends, is what my New Year’s wish is for me and for you.

I hope that we can all cut through the drab, dreary, and sometimes painful black and white screen of this world, and see the color, taste the innocence, and hear the laughter.

If we can do those things, the rest of 2009 will fall into place.

Be safe…Kiss someone you love at midnight…and Happy New Year!!

Cheers!!