Passing the Torch
2011 was a hell of a year…
As with many years, it hadn’t really started off fresh, but rather half-charred thanks to what had occurred in the previous year. That’s the funny thing about time as perceived by humans, everything is built on the past. More often than not, the New Year is messed up before it has even begun.
It’s kind of like parenting in that regard, I guess.
I’ve always found the idea of time a strange concept to grasp for some reason. I know what it is, I know how it works, we’ve all grown up with a very specific version of time and a very specific vision of what the passing of time means for us as humans. It’s a difficult thought to manage, but I often wonder what it would be like to live without constructed time. How would it affect us to not see numbers and associate them with the passing of hours? What would our society be like without time? Would we have got to where we are now without it?
One of the most important facets of dealing with human-calculated time is the New Year. All over the world, in various calendar systems, people celebrate the coming of a New Year. The idea of fresh beginnings and new starts is simply too strong for people to resist. It’s typically a time to see friends and family, to try to improve oneself in some way, or a time to make vows to let go of old bad habits.
It is, however, a difficult process.
Everything is built on the past. Whether we are talking about our individual past or the previous generations from which we have sprung, there is never a perfectly clean break. There is always pressure exerted from yesterday. If there is one thing that I have hoped to impart with this comic and blog post it is this: we cannot escape the past, we do not exist in a vacuum, we are not somehow unique and different and exempt from time.
That may sound a little depressing at a time like this but give it a moment. We, being the creatures that we are, so often choose to look to the future rather than the past and this is, quite often, a good thing. We should not dwell on the aches and pains of yesteryear, but rather look forward to the promise of the future on the horizon, but we should also not forget where we come from. We should not ignore the tens of thousands of years of shared human history that bind us together. Some of it may be painful, some of it may be downright silly, but all of it has helped to inform our societies today and our individual lives.
So as we look forward to 2012, let’s say goodbye to 2011. Let’s say goodbye to the silly, hurtful, or painful things we’ve done this year to ourselves and others and really mean it. Don’t ignore the difficult parts but rather, recognize them, let them go, and really start 2012 properly. Face the future with the knowledge that you can be just a little bit better, a little bit stronger this coming year thanks to the year before.
And let’s not forget the great things that happened either. Let’s not trivialize them or forget how wonderful those moments were. Let’s not forget that there is quite a bit of good in all of us. We have all done some awesome things this year, I’m certain.
I really truly hope you have a wonderful New Year. Thank you all for making 2011 so great for me. I hope this comic (however silly this sentiment may be) helped to make your year just a little bit better.
Much love to all of you,
Scott
Wait, so like the guy is only a year old and he’s an old man? Is he going to die after giving the new baby the torch? :c
Yes, yes he will…
He’s going to a farm up state where he can run and play and eat fresh food every day.
With all the other years before him.
LOL
People say the world will end in 2012.
There’s one possibility.
You could call it ‘dying’ or simple reverting back to the beginning.
Like a big old circle or wheel.
My goodness, so much happened this past year, didn’t it? People rising up, governments being overthrown… history being made. I know I’ve changed. I see that I and my peers have grown, and it astounds me.
I’m ready to move forward. There’s an entire world that awaits us, now more than ever before. I’m ready to shed everything I’ve been like an old skin that no longer fits, to become the new creature that is the result of all of that past. Let’s go!
Thank you for making this great comic! It has enriched my life, and I am very grateful. 🙂
I love your comic! Your blog posts enrich my knowledge base and I’m always thankful for that. Good luck in this next year- with everything! <3
C:
You asked “How would it affect us to not see numbers and associate them with the passing of hours? What would our society be like without time?”
Check out these people:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/12/hadza/finkel-text.html
“nothing changes, on New Year’s Day…”
Every time I think of the New years I think of this song…
“So this is the new year.
And i don’t feel any different.
The clanking of crystal
Explosions off in the distance (in the distance).
So this is the new year
And I have no resolutions
For self assigned penance
For problems with easy solutions
So everybody put your best suit or dress on
Let’s make believe that we are wealthy for just this once
Lighting firecrackers off on the front lawn
As thirty dialogs bleed into one
I wish the world was flat like the old days
Then i could travel just by folding a map
No more airplanes, or speed trains, or freeways
There’d be no distance that could hold us back.”
– The New Year by Death Cab For Cutie
Who takes care of the Year? Because I’m thinking that a burn like that, without proper medical treatment, is most assuredly fatal.
You most definitely made my year a little bit better (if only for a few minutes every time) I’d say. I’ll also try to take your advice there to heart as I don’t really feel to good about this year or well.. much at all at the moment. Could be it’s just that time of the year (winter, dark and whatnot). Well whatever, I’ll not spill my crap all over this commentfield.
Nice comic Scott, I’m sure there will be plenty more in the coming 12 months
Bit of an interesting- and very late- tidbit for you, there are people who don’t share the common perception of “time”. I’m not talking about cultures, or mindsets- I’m talking about how the brain works.
There’s a learning disability which is thought to be rather common, but highly under-diagnosed and little heard of, called “dyscalculia”. If that makes you think of a mathematical version of dyslexia, you’re part-way there. But, as well as affecting the individual’s ability to do mathematics, it can possibly affect a number of other things, as well- distance, direction, currency, time, and for some bizarre reason the ability to read sheet music.
I can’t speak for all people who have dyscalculia which affects their time perception, but speaking for myself, I have no concept of things which aren’t, in some way, affecting the “now”. This includes psychologically, so if I’m impacted by something it still stays with me- but if it’s outside my “relevancy sphere”, as I call it, it simply does not exist to me.
This may sound like a good way to let go of the past- and as soon as I drop baggage and stop letting it affect the now, it is- but it also means that I have no hope for the future. To me, the future simply does not exist, beyond those things which are affecting my current actions or thoughts.
I thought it was an interesting thing to share. Human minds vary so immensely, it’s fascinating to think of how different people literally think and process information. To me at least.
I hated 2011