New Year's Eve is quite a commotion. It has nothing to do with ChristmasThose of us who feel uncomfortable during this time of year do so for other reasons, not because we have to share a table with people we only see briefly every 12 months, all wearing the same winter clothes (What do their arms look like? Maybe they have a hideous tattoo and we don't even know it). It's a jarring pause that, at least for me, always catches me off guard. The whole year is right there, on December 31st. And yet, I still feel like I'm late (like with everything else in life, for that matter). It's a passive time: it does nothing, it simply runs out, marking a countdown. And, when it does, it suddenly gives retroactive importance to everything that's happened to you that year.