January 1

It is quite common when embarking on a new project for a person to choose the first day of a new year as a convenient starting point. On that day, the entire year stretches out in front of you; hope is blithely twinkling on the horizon enticing you with its possibilities. A person would be hard-pressed to feel anything other than optimism. What is it that you want to do? Do you want to lose 10 pounds? Is it perhaps your wish to learn how to play the clarinet? Do you desire to become a writer whose work will be read hundreds of years after you have died? On the 1st in 1660, diarist and inveterate gossip Samuel Pepys made the first entry in the diary that he would scrupulously maintain until May 31, 1669 when he would make his last entry. My guess is that Pepys was fond of alcohol, perhaps a bit too fond of it. His diary entry for New Year's Day, 1661, reads: "I have newly taken a solemn oath about abstaining from plays and wine ...". How many people have made that oath on New Year’s Day?
[ii] Pepys was slowly going blind and his failing eyesight made it impossible for him to continue writing in his diary.