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.