Jan. 1 is no different from any other day, but it brings with it the magical thinking that things can be different.
With our black-eyed peas and greens, or only the leftover appetizers from Thursday night, we sail into the new day with the idea that just a change in year - 2015 to 2016 - we'll get a raise in salary, our children will advance from merely awesome to brilliant and the country will begin to remember itself.
We'll lose weight, clean out the clutter, exercise more, commit to better faith habits and spend more time with our families. It's all possible because we flipped the calendar, turned the page, mentally threw out the old habits and prayed to double down on discipline.
With the kind of optimism that only comes with New Year's Day, here are some scenarios we hope will play out in the coming 12 months:
' Though it's not likely to happen in at least one of the two major parties, Americans will decide they are tired of the names Bush and Clinton in politics and choose to make the 2016 presidential election one in which policy stances and new ideas from fresh faces are paramount.
' Donald Trump's ceiling as a Republican presidential candidate will occur just before the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses. By the end of the year, he'll be seeking to replace Steve Harvey as host of the Miss Universe pageant.
' President Barack Obama will spend his last year in office doing one thing he could have been doing from the outset that could truly make a difference - tirelessly traveling the country and rallying black crowds behind the importance of education and two-parent families, the availability of jobs (that require training) and the scourge of drugs. Unfortunately, that's not something he can take a pen and sign an executive order to change.
' Climate models will continue to confound the global warming extremists, causing them to tone down the predictions they know can't possibly come true. Meanwhile, scientists will continue to perfect green energy sources, so that when the year ends we're closer to the wider use of such sources because they're finally becoming cost-efficient.
' Volkswagen will emerge from its emissions-cheating scandal with a well-received mass-marketing campaign that exceeds the good feelings that emanated from the 2011 Super Bowl ad in which a pint-sized Darth Vader attempts to use The Force on the new Passat in his driveway. The company also will begin to build new models that allow the brand to appear in top 10 lists for reliability.
' President Obama's better-late-than-never strategy of adding additional United States forces and air support to the army attempting to turn back the Islamic State in Iraq will continue to work, the effort will get the cooperation of thousands of new Sunnis and Shiites who can now unite against a common enemy, and the Islamic State will be close to disintegrating by the end of the year.
' Domestic terrorist and mass murder acts will decline precipitously, and while everyone takes credit, nobody will really understands why it was happening.
' A bipartisan Congress will vote to eliminate the Affordable Care Act's soon-to-be-implemented Cadillac tax on high-dollar health plans. President Obama will lecture the country on what good the plan would have done but will sign the bill anyway.
' Sensing the likely election of a tough-minded Republican president (or at least a tougher-talking Democrat president), Russian President Vladamir Putin will declare his country has stabilized the situations in Ukraine and Syria and will call his forces home to tackle the rising domestic problems there.
' The Rio de Janeiro Olympics will go down in history as a spectacle of athleticism and cooperation - and nothing negative.
' Tennessee lawmakers, desirous of keeping their highways among the nation's best, will pass a small gas tax hike. The world price of oil will rise but not significantly, so gasoline prices for Americans will climb but remain well below their average for the last five years.
' Pressure will build on the Hamilton County Board of Education and the Hamilton County Commission to name the next new schools they will build. The replacement Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts will top the list, but a constant rumble will be heard over the need for a centrally located, comprehensive trades and vocational school.
' Chattanooga will add to its cachet as an outdoors city when it lands a well-known rock climbing competition.
On New Year's Day, anything can happen. We can't affect each of the above scenarios, but we can improve ourselves and change the world around us. In 2016, let's don't just dream it. Let's do it.