New Year, Same You. And What’s Wrong With That?
A friend of mine who is a yoga teacher once told a class I was in that she loves fresh starts. “Like the best thing for me,” she said, illustrating her point, “is when the first day of the month is a Monday. I love that.” Same, I thought.
The 48 hours marking the turning of the year, when we experience the last day of the old year and then the first day of the new one, are my favorite hours of the year. Not because I want to completely remake myself, shedding the me of the old year to devote myself to losing the weight, trying a spin class, or finally accomplishing a 5k — none of that stuff appeals to me. Those things are all fine as far as they go — if you love a 5k then I, in the words of Alexis Rose, love that journey for you. But I think the New Year has been effectively co-opted by the diet and exercise folks, and the cutthroat ad execs who work for them, as a way to sell more $100 yoga pants and supplements, running shoes and Apple watches. With all that gear, we’ll finally whip ourselves into the people we should be, the ads tell us. The happier people, with the whiter teeth and smaller bodies and more dynamic groups of friends! PASS. Don’t believe it, please. The most radical thing you can do is accept yourself, someone wiser than me once said, and that’s what the advertisers fear, because if you accept yourself, there will be almost nothing you’ll need…
