At the beginning of the year, every year, I think of this amazing quote by religious historian Wendy Doniger, who taught at UChicago’s Divinity School for decades: “The idea that you’re suddenly going to change is a magical idea.”
Her quote is from a 2013 article in the Atlantic with a headline I wish I had written, “Why Getting Drunk and Making Resolutions on New Year’s Are Profoundly Religious Acts.”
I love this idea.
I love the idea of changing, of becoming someone new, of transforming into the person you’ve always wanted to be—starting at the stroke of midnight.
Actual people don’t change like this, or so New Year’s skeptics would argue. The gym is noticeably more crowded this time of year, skeptics point out. By February the crowds will have thinned, even if the newly minted gym members will have not.
Fictional characters have to change, though. This is a truism of writing fiction. There must be a plot. There must be conflict. By the end the protagonist must change in some way.
This time of year, I love the idea that we are all allowed—encouraged—to be more like fictional characters. To dream. To believe in magic.
Carrie Golus 