Happy New Year 2011 - Auld Lang Syne finally means something

Nostalgia for the past means a longing for whiteness

I'm not one to pray often or to engage in wishful thinking. But while watching the seconds tick away and 2010 ultimately succomb to a new year - full of incredible potential -  I felt that the ushering in of 2011 was something extraordinary.

Attending a posh party and enjoying the festivities among friends and a throng of revelers, it dawned on me that 2011 is a year I have long looked forward to starting.

Sharing a champagne toast with old friends and listening to the familiar (yet somehow alien) chordes of Auld Lang Syne strike up I became a bit misty eyed when thinking of past memories shared with them; loved ones no longer around to laugh with (one in particular); and the daunting struggle ahead that so many are oblivious too.

There are so many problems plaguing American society right now and yet this nation still has so many wonderful things to offer. This is a beautiful country and no matter what the future holds, there are still so many things worth fighting for and defending.

All of those coincide with what made Pre-Obama America great and I believe a great nostalgia for that place exists in the hearts and minds of most people living in the US today. Normal people who do the living and dying in the United States don't think about things to the extent that we do here at SBPDL, but concern themselves with matters dealing with the day-to-day struggles in Black Run America (BRA).

As the chorus to Auld Lang Syne faded and Journey's Don't Stop Believing serendeptiously took over bringing the crowd of about 100 to continue signing in unison, a smile came across my face that would be extremely hard to replicate.

Peggy Noonan asks this question:

The question it asks is clear: Should those we knew and loved be forgotten and never thought of? Should old times past be forgotten? No, says the song, they shouldn't be. We'll remember those times and those people, we'll toast them now and always, we'll keep them close. "We'll take a cup of kindness yet."

The past can never be forgotten and as BRA goes bankrupt the nostaglia for those "simpler times" will be so thick you'll have to swat it away from your eyes. Watch Turner Classic Movies (TCM) if you have any questions about what is meant by that, as nostaglia for the past is a longing for a return to a nation epitomized by The Greatest Generation.

So here's to those friends, family and loved ones no longer with us or yet to be found on Facebook. May whatever ailments that injured the relationship be healed, for life is surely to brief to hold grudges for eternity.

Always remember the good times you have had and no matter what transpires in the future, you'll get through. The movie It's a Wonderful Life was right - no man is a failure who has friends.

Stuff Black People Don't Like wishes you and your family a Happy New Year. May 2011 be the year you look back on one day and realize that it was the year nostaglia made its long awaited come back.

When nostalgia becomes overwhelming, the ranks of Those Who Can See will represent the majority of the traditional majority American population. In the end, that's all it will take.

I'll drink a cup of kindness to that.