Light a candle to brighten 2015

It’s sad in many ways to say good-bye to a year.

But the new year brings with it a feeling of renewal. Folks across the United States will engage in activities to celebrate the start of 2015, with many eating Southern favorites such as greens, black-eyed peas and ham for good fortune. Certain events, such as washing clothes, will be forbidden in many homes, and resolutions will be on many people’s lips — promises to live healthier lives, to accomplish things left undone and other changes to make for a more positive year.

Of course, quite a bit of that tends to fall by the wayside as the holiday season recesses into the background and daily life again takes hold. After all, despite the psychological significance of turning a year over to the next number, there is no clean slate. The joys we felt during the old year will stay with us and the troubles that troubled us in 2014 that have not been resolved will still be with us after the ball drops at Times Square at midnight tonight.

Still, it is a time where we’re led, often through through tradition, to look back at what was and, perhaps more importantly, what might have been. In some cases, we will be pleased with what we’ve experienced. In others, we will be saddened. There are those we loved, cared for or were acquainted with who will not be joining us to greet 2015 when it arrives.

Certainly, our nation experienced a turbulent period of introspection in many cities in 2014, the ripples of which will continue to be felt in the new year. While many from different viewpoints argue for simple answers to the problems that our society faces, the solutions are much more complicated and, if they are reached at all, will require some meeting of the minds that so far has eluded us.

Empathy has not been a strong point of late, another casualty of the the societal chasm that seems to widen with each moment. Rather than embrace, we entrench our respective positions. Rather than look through the eyes of another, we maintain our own unwavering, myopic gaze. Rather than listen to other opinions, we turn a deaf ear to all who do not agree with us.

We, if we want, can turn from this course. We can decide that the chain that is America is only as strong as its weakest link. We can choose to engage in civil discourse, to work toward equitable solutions, rather than to accuse, inflame and label.

It would take a new resolution, one that each of us can undertake on his or her own. Each of us can decide to lable neither this person a thug nor that person a racist. Each of us can decide to turn away from those who have a vested interest in maintaining power or instilling mistrust. After celebrating the Christmas season with songs of joy and hope, we can do our part, one by one, to bring those carols to life. One small candle lighting another that lights yet another can soon dispel a great deal of darkness.

Lighting that candle, no matter how small, and keeping it lit throughout the year would be a wonderful resolution to make, one that could, indeed, make a difference in the lives of others.

— The Albany Herald Editorial Board