(Video link at Heliotown) Two days before New Year’s, we came across this passage from Mark Halprin’s Winter’s Tale, describing the moment the old year turned into new:

Then the hands of the clock started to race like the tortoise and the hare, and both reached midnight at the same time. The clock struck along with every clock in New York, and church bells, fireworks, and ship whistles sounded all at once…

…several women had begun to cry. The women said it was because of the numbing air that had washed over their bare shoulders, but even strangers embraced sadly as they coasted into the new year and felt its strength commencing. They cried because of the magic and the contradictions; because time had passed and time was left; because they saw themselves as if they were in a photograph that had winked fast enough to contradict their mortality; because the city around them had conspired to break a hundred thousand hearts; and because they and everyone else had to float upon this sea of troubles, watertight. Sometimes there were islands, and when they found them they held fast, but never could they hold fast enough not to be moved and once again overwhelmed. 

It knocked us out, weaving so much of what that moment is into a single paragraph.

Somehow Thomas Ashcraft’s lovely shooting star video seemed fittting.

Related posts: amy friend’s photographs: cosmic connect-the-dots
a poster to inspire your new year’s intention
fantasmagorie for new year’s eve

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2 replies on “new year’s eve: ashcraft’s shooting star + ‘winter’s tale’

  1. “magic and contradictions” – unbelievable, I couldn’t agree more about all of these words…each carrying their own weight – achingly touching…arrow straight to my heart…feeling it all…written by a man, about women…in a noteworthy blend/balance of masculine and feminine…poignant…really captures the essence of this year in particular for me. somehow it all fits…so much gratitude and love to all.

  2. wow. ‘Improvised Life’- thank you for this and so many other amazing posts, you make my life better.

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