New Years and Resolutions

Yesterday, I heard that there is a plan to shorten the New Year's festivities at Nathan Philips Square due to predicted low temperatures throughout the city. While I have never been a big fan of this celebration (not being one to savor crowds), I started to reflect on why people like to congregate on New Years, and what the significance of being together in one place happens to be. It is interesting to reflect on the notion of parties, and how big celebrations often create feelings of anticipation among large group of people. Is it possible that "the bigger the crowd" that can be generated, the more anticipation there will be? I recently read that in New York, people will get up very early and wait at Times Square so that they can be one of the first (and closest) to see the New Year's ball drop. They will even wear diapers, knowing that there are very few washroom facilities open at around midnight in New York City. Why do people do this, then?
   I often use New Years as an opportunity to reflect on my resolutions, or what I hope to achieve at the end of a given year. In other words, there is an opportunity to reset one's mind as needed and make some kind of vow or promise to myself. The problem is that,, often, our resolutions are completely based on the moment and the circumstances we happen to be in. Many people take prolonged vacations during the holiday season, where they have many opportunities to reflect on all the things they want to achieve over the next year. They may not be aware that because they are completely unoccupied and have less responsibilities in that moment, they may dream very big. It's a little bit like that experience of going to a supermarket on an empty stomach: I end up buying a whole bunch of things I don't really need, because it reflects the empty stomach of that moment rather than the realistic workings of the body from day to day. Honestly, do I need that many mangoes or grapes if I am not so hungry as I might be when I enter the supermarket?
   The same thing, perhaps, goes with resolutions. I might promise myself to do something for the new year but I need to have a day to day plan to make it happen. I am not saying not have resolutions but rather, one needs to be realistic about one's resolutions. Is the goal really to "get rid" of a craving one has or might a more realistic solution be to be able to bear frustration of not having what one craves? The former is very romantic: I have a problem and all I really need to do is just stop indulging it and it will go away. But this kind of goal does not consider the consequences. If I decide not to indulge what I like, I do need to face the consequences of the emotions I might feel (deprivation, loneliness, withdrawal, etc.). Can I look at these emotions as they are without trying to turn them into something else? Well, this is where day to day life starts to kick in, and one has to learn to bear the more mundane aspects of renouncing cravings and facing the everyday. It's good to set goals, yes, but it's also good not to romanticize goals or think that achieving them will be easy or fun all the time. What they do provide is the opportunity to befriend difficult or challenging emotions.