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Published on 12/15/1999 All articles from this issue

December - month of smiles

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By Charlotte Jarmy

Reflections

What if the dates do get unhinged and stuck on Dec. 31, 1999? What would be so bad about not getting a day older? Would it be terrible if income tax season is put off a day or two or even more? To be on the verge of a momentous occasion may be more interesting than actually crossing the line and settling down into the year 2000. What a chore to write the new date correctly every time we make out a check.

The most exciting idea of Y2K is what could happen, right? Should I travel on that day? Will we have enough food? Maybe Safeway's computer system will get stuck on a ridiculously low total for a full cart of groceries. I could live with that.

Millennium sales may never end; they'll go on every day till the end of time. That's pretty close to normal anyway. New Year's Eve parties will continue wildly every year. People are hoarding champagne even now. In Las Vegas, Streisand will have to sing until her throat gives out, and she yells to her new husband in pure New Yorkese, "This is dumb. James, call the super and tell him to fix it. That's what we always did in New York." Our super was always on vacation.

In San Francisco, the light signals will stay green for 10 minutes while the red lights change so fast that the drivers don't have time to run them. The cable cars will ride up and down the hills day after day, passengers starved or in a stupor. The street people will announce the end of the world and mean it. Could they be right?

Movies like "Being John Malcovich" begin to make sense. I can see it now. Crowds fight to enter a famous celebrity's head. I'd probably choose Paul Newman. But perhaps the nicest reason to welcome a postponed year 2000 is the smile that is on everyone's face. Have you noticed that smiles become sweeter and sweeter as we go through the holiday season? Thanksgiving starts the trend and smiles stay on firmly until Jan. 2. It's lovely: your neighbors smile at you, teenagers smile as they try not to run into you on their wheels, total strangers greet you with, "Hi. Nice day isn't it?"

Will opposing armies in Europe and Asia continue their cease fire all the way to the millennium? We could really enjoy "peace on earth, goodwill to men" for weeks, maybe years. We may even have to declare a moratorium on the smile. It hurts after a while. I could smile inwardly when I don't have to make that most tenuous of all resolutions on New Year's Eve. I'll let you guess what that might be, or substitute one of your own.

There will be unpleasant results of such an event that we may have to face. The Internet will not post new data, and the stock exchange will go berserk. Television programming will stay stuck on that darn ball dropping down in New York's Times Square. What about all the football games that so many love to watch on New Year's day? This has been fun, but I don't really want 1999 to stay stuck day after day. Here comes the moral of the story.

The reality is that happiness does not depend on the date on the calendar. It's what we do with our lives every moment of every day.

Charlotte K. Jarmy , a Los Altos resident, is a longtime free-lance writer for the Town Crier.