I've never been big on Christmas. Ever since my younger brother entered the world on Christmas Eve 1977 it pretty much well ruined things for me. I've never been a big New Year's Eve party girl either. I usually leave that night to the couples and the couple of amateurs who try to live it up Diddy style one night a year.
This year, instead of picking a character, I decided to set the stage and hold an open audition. No better stage than the annual New Year's Day Coney Island Polar Bear Swim! I've never done anything like this before. What would possess me to do such a thing? Some have suggested a boy. And although I will admit I got the idea from one, what really made me want to do it was the feeling I had last October when I went into the cold water off of Manhattan Beach and helped a woman who was caught in a cross current. See Brooklyn Baywatch.
Truthfully, no boy or woman lacking boyance had any effect on my decision to do this. I wanted to start the new year off right with a cold splash of reality. As I frolicked in the knee deep waters with the other die hard polar bears I realized that in an ocean of people I was by myself. And that kind of stung. So I swam out past the crazy costumes, the splashing, and the hooting & hollering until there was some semblance of silence. That's what I had been craving and it was good to find it. It was there that I made my promises, or resolutions, or whatever you want to call them. As I set each goal in my mind, the cold ocean slapped me backed as if we were making a pact.
And though I may still struggle and think I'd like to be more like so-and-so, I know that this is something I can do on my own. But it is nice to know you have friends waiting for you on the shore with a towel in hand....
Happy 2012, all!
