Are you ready for the countdown to 2014? Who will uncork your bottle of bubbly? And will you be in tune or off key when you sing “Auld Lang Syne” for the umpteenth time in your life?
It happens all over the world. At the stroke of midnight, fireworks light up the sky and we gasp with delight. Firecrackers on the ground threaten life and limb, but no one seems to care. Then the band strikes up this perennial year-ender hit by the immortal Robert Burns to usher in the New Year. It brings tears to many. I can never keep my composure.
What is “auld lang syne?” A loose definition says it means “for the sake of old times.” The beloved Scot poet was an incurable romantic. Robert Louis Stevenson once said about him: “A leading trait throughout Burns’ whole career was his desire to be in love.”
Burns himself is quoted in a commentary about belonging to a certain club: “Every man proper for a member of this society must have a frank, honest open heart above anything dirty or mean; and must be a professed lover of one or more of the female sex.”
I know people like that, don’t you?
The next best thing to being with family or a special significant other at midnight is to be with people close to your heart who have stayed with you through the good and bad. The song celebrates long-standing, time-tested, seaworthy friendships. That’s when it takes on a deeper meaning, making us sloppily sentimental.
It also means “in the days of the old times,” or simply “once upon a time,” which when found at the start of a fairy tale promises a “happily ever after.” Oops, let’s not even go there.
New Year’s Eve in my day was exciting. My most memorable was spent at the original Casa Marcos, named after its owner, former pelotari Marcos de Guisasola.
It was a rough, planked wooden deck festooned with lights on the beach in Baclaran at the end of Dewey Boulevard and became known as the home of Marcos steaks in hot pan de sal dunked in his unique garlic sauce.
12 grapes
It was quite romantic. We danced under the stars to the music of a group that sounded like Trio Los Panchos. Their soloist was a Pinoy, Lucho Gatica. At 12 o’clock, amid calls for “un brindis!” we hugged and kissed and sang about taking “a cup of kindness.” Champagne was on the house, and so were the 12 grapes.
Many a romance bloomed there, some taboo. Unlike in Vegas, what happened in Casa Marcos did not always stay there. I was witness to some exciting confrontations. But Señor Guisasola, that huge Spanish teddy bear, restored the peace.
As our countdown approaches, keep in mind that whether you drink your champagne with the traditional grapes or not, despite an old wives’ tale to the contrary, the year will still have 12 months. The same number of hours and minutes will tick away. The first few days may seem to crawl, but soon will gain momentum and then, poof, another year is gone, leaving us to wonder once again what happened to the time and what we did with it.
Everyone is wishing for a better year. Please God, no more Yolandas. We pray for peace. How about ending hostilities in the south? Wonderful thoughts!
But what exactly in your own life do you wish to change? It is not enough to just sit around with fingers crossed hoping for a breakthrough. What will it take? You must do something you have never done before.
Remember the old relationship that fell apart? Restore it. Who cares who was at fault! Take the first step. It is time to forgive.
Leave the past where it belongs. Learn from it. But let it go.
Be kind.
Buy someone breakfast. Give your coworker a ride home. Hug someone.
Pay it forward. You’ll be surprised how good it feels.
You want change? Remember the words of the great leader Mahatma Gandhi: “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” Are you willing?
Is there anyone out there still making New Year resolutions? Celebrities have weighed in. A sudden thought: Do politicians make any? I know they make promises.
Someone asked for my take on the standoff in Dasmariñas Village. Good grief, with all the issues in the country and around the world, are we still harping on that?
Yes we are. Why? Because it matters! I refuse to think of it as “same old same old.”
In my mind, that it happened at all speaks volumes. Only one thing could have prevented the deplorable incident: character.
With the New Year just two days away, we remember events from 2013. Some of us may even wonder if there is anything worth celebrating. I say there is!
In spite of yesterday’s tragedy and sorrow, today our hearts are full of hope as we bid adieu to 2013 and dare look forward to the New Year.
We are extraordinary people, remember? I have always known that to be true. But it took the winds of Yolanda to tell it to the world. We are like the bamboo. We bend but we do not break.
Let us raise our glasses in grateful celebration! Together we speak life into the New Year. Let us embrace it with confident expectation!
Welcome 2014! May this one be the best ever! Happy New Year!