WHAT’S IN A YEAR?

By Edwin Cooney

Let’s see now – in most years, there are four seasons, twelve months, 52 weeks, 365 days, 8,760 hours, 525,600 minutes and, finally, 31,536,000 seconds in a single year.  Additionally, there’s Super Bowl Sunday, Groundhog Day, Presidents Day (it’s unpatriotic to link the last two special days!), Valentine’s Day, Easter, the opening day of the baseball season, Patriot’s Day, Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, Labor Day, Columbus Day, the final day of the World Series, Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas and New Year’s Day.  Nuts! I forgot April 15^th -- sorry about that one!  Ah, but there’s even more than that!

Each year is a domain within which we share our being energized by the love and knowledge of those we know and, potentially, by people we have yet to meet.  With the conclusion of each year, there are memories and, best of all, there is perspective!

On Sunday, March 9^th, 2014 at 2:15 p.m. Eastern Time, and 11:15 a.m. Pacific Time, Lady C. and I completed our first year together.  To paraphrase Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities,” never was our year the worst of times!  As for “the best of times,” the best of times have been such that they clearly beckon towards even better times ahead!

Lady C. makes no pretense at perfection, but she’s energetic, charming, sweet, interesting, not always predictable, creative, dedicated, loyal, determined, thoughtful, polite, loving… and she just loves lists.  So, that’s my excuse for this list this time.

Ultimately, a year is a measure of time and time is a measure of existence.  Lady C. and time definitely exist and they have lots of things in common.  First, as I mentioned above, time (just like Lady C.) can be unpredictable.  Invariably, both time and Lady C. grant you space to ponder, leisure to consider, and grace when you don’t deserve it.  On other occasions, both time and Lady C. can be impatient and demanding, rigid and insistent.  However, it must be kept in mind that Lady C. is real, a child of nature, while time, for the most part, is merely the intellect’s way of coping with aging – an element that both Lady C. and the rest of us try in vain to ignore!

The days of the years 2013 and 2014 which made up the first 365 days of our union serve to remind us and encourage us.  They remind us of wonderful memories of accommodation and compromise, of visits and presents, of games and events enjoyed together, as well as emotional and spiritual differences -- of promises not entirely kept and of other promises which more than exceeded expectations.  Both of us have places we’d expected to go which we have not visited, family members whom we have not yet met, and dreams yet to be realized.

As for the rest of the world, in the year since Saturday, March 9^th, 2013…

George Zimmerman was found not guilty of murdering Trayvon Martin thus granting the National Rifle Association and GOP/Conservatives a sense of political, legal and moral accomplishment;

The Boston Marathon turned into a second “Boston Massacre” last April;

President Obama, much to the contempt of some people, granted more time for the adoption of “Obamacare” to meet the needs of the people;

The federal government was shut down and re-opened to the satisfaction of few Americans;

The New York Yankees let their star second baseman, Robinson Cano, go to the Seattle Mariners as a free agent;

Prominent Americans such as Shirley Temple Black, homerun slugger Ralph Kiner and former “second lady” Joan Mondale have died. 

All of these events, however we view them, in some small way mark our first 365 days married as they mark the lives of countless others.

For me, our first year has been most grand – way, way beyond my expectations and most assuredly beyond my hopes.  Sadly, I left some of the most precious people I’ve ever known behind in California, but it’s also fair to say that I’ve met and am increasingly coming to know some folks whose presence in our new life is also very precious.

Each year is a culmination of all the events and people we’ve experienced.  Our capacity for reflection can, if we let it, increase our capacity for appreciation of all around us, especially those who are most dear to us.

The 365 days between Saturday, March 9^th, 2013 and Sunday, March 9^th, 2014 have been generous to Lady C. and me.  I suppose we can’t expect every year to be as generous, but we can allow ourselves to be energized by the happy events of 2013 and 2014 that were sanctioned by our mutual love.

Every year is ours and yours, yours and ours.  Every year possesses shades of hope and opportunity because you and I and Lady C. deserve by our very humanness all creation has to grant us.

Still, the question remains: “what’s in a year?”  The answer, as I see it, is: all the days and all the ways we need to beckon forth the promises of each tomorrow!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY