Ihe Jewish iNew \ear Brings
New
by BEN NATHAN
7 - Arts Feature
Beginnings
A new year is with us again.
It is amazing that the old
one ever came to an end. There
were times we thought we’d
never get through. But there
you have it—we did.
That’s the funny thing about
time. It always changes, and
changes us with it, and when
we think we’re faltering it
carries us, and when we think
time can’t go on, time swoops
down and before you know it
puts you on another scene.
That’s what is meant when
they speak of time’s inexor
ability, its irresistible move
ment and irresistible change.
Mv grandfather knew what
he meant when he always re
assured me that “every day is
a new day.” What he meant
was because time changes we
are not irreparably glued to
what’s past, and that with cor
rect impulses we can alter
everything we suspected we
were stuck to. If every day is
a new day, how much more so
is every year a new year.
Actually change is so con
stant one doesn’t even have to
try. The problems of one day,
problems as vast as the world,
are gone the next without even
a patter of thought.
What loomed like the big
gest monstrosity at a certain
time, doesn’t even approach Ihe
size of an insect at another
time.
Today we think we're dying
and twenty-four hours hence
we have a thousand years of
eternity looming before us.
On one day we think we are
useless, and doing nothing,
and able to do less, and the
next day we think of ourselves
as verily the greatest, with the
ability and plans to carry out
a hundred and one tasks.
Today we are low, tomorrow
we are high. Today we fancy
all is lost and wasted, tomor
row we thank the Lord for all
he has given us in such abund
ance.
Such is time. No two seg
ments of it are ever alike. No
two moments and no two
hours. No two months and no
two years. Each is distinct un
to itself. Each different. Each
unexpected and fresh with
new wonder, new surprises,
new goals, and new achieve
ments.
So do not judge the future
by the past. In the past may
be wisdom, but in the future
is life, and the miracles of the
living which know no end.
The past has experience but
the future has surprises. The
past produces memory, but the
future produces expectation
and hope. The past has made
what is, what is already, but
the future produces what shall
be, and what is not yet. The
past is closed but the future is
open. The one is over, the
other has not yet begun,
though begin it will always,
always in beginning and al
ways new.
The walls of the past have
already been written on, but
who knows what letters, sym
bols and signs shall be en
graved on the walls of the
future, or even where those
walls shall stand.
Only the seer perceives and,
at that, only dimly and never
with certitude.
Do not, therefore, be locked
in yesterday’s dream or yester
day’s terror. The year speaks
anew, speaking new hopes and
new changes.
Do not anticipate that, that
which has been already shall
necessarily be again, or that
what was feared or hated shall
continue to loom large in a year
that may very well wholly
evaporate those dreads.
Give yourself to the new
year flexibly. Do not be bound
by what has already been.
That is the meaning of the
New Year holiday—to an
nounce to man that there is a
perpetually new beginning and
that he is to take advantage of
that new beginning in every
manner he can and with full
and complete measure.
The Southern Israelite
17
