The year that has been

The year is drawing to a close. Christmas is Tuesday; and there's less than a week and a half left to 2007.

I wish I could say it's been a great year. To be honest, moments of joy have been sparse, at best. On the CBC program "Q" last night, Jian Ghomeshi was talking about how the British have a small obsession with the "Christmas Day single"; it seems the single holding the No. 1 spot on Christmas Day is a big deal. If you've seen the movie "Love Actually", this is a subplot of that movie.

My end-of-year music obsession is somewhat different. I usually try to find a song that sums up the year's events, or the overall feeling I have when looking back over the year.

This year, the award goes to a beautiful song by Semisonic's Dan Wilson; it's from the "Maybe This Christmas" compilation and it's called, "What a Year for a New Year":

What a year for a new year
We need it like we needed life I guess
Last one left us lying in a mess
What a year for a new year

What a night for a sunrise
And we thought the dark would never end
Reaching out to try to find a friend
What a night for a sunrise
Sunrise

What a day for new day
And our star shines like a miracle
And our world is almost beautiful again
What a day for a new day
New day

What a year for a new year

What a night for a sunrise
And we thought the dark would never end
Reaching out to try to find a friend
What a night for a sunrise
Sunrise

Soon we’ll be lying in our beds
And new dreams will fill our heads
And the old ones will be ended
Hope we’ll forget about this place
Let it go without a trace
Wipe the teardrops from our faces
Oh! What a year for a new year!

I'm not a total Scrooge, of course; I'm looking forward to Christmas with B and the kids, and I think it will be a "rewarding" one for us all, in terms of the superficial. I'm just finding it difficult, these days, to keep a good perspective and look to the future with much optimism. Rather than my usual (or former) "This'll get better soon", my mindset is more, "Good grief. This is never going to change, is it?"

...Hope we’ll forget about this place
Let it go without a trace...