cessations, part 2

The last verse of Deck the Hall with Boughs of Holly begins:

     Fast away the old year passes,
       fa la la la la, la la la lah!
     Hail the new, ye lads and lasses,
       fa la la la la, la la la lah!

Actually the old year passes one day at a time, but during the last week in December we have an illusion of accelerating toward an ending -- which, of course, is also a beginning. But the unknown lyricist does not sustain the themes of cessation or of starting something new. She doubles back into the holiday season:

     Follow me in merry measure,

       fa la la, fa la la, fa la lah!

     While I tell of yuletide treasure,

       fa la la la la, la la la lah!

Yes, it's always easier to linger in well-decked halls than to look ahead!

It was on February 28, 2010, that I posted cessations, part 1, where I had some fun talking about hiatuses (hiati?) and on April 16 I first attempted cessations, part 2, which, I then thought, would deal with the completion of projects. Many other thoughts of different kinds of cessations have disappeared into the fa la la la lah of fantasy and good intentions during 2010.

While we have some control over a hiatus or the completion of a project, year's end comes whether we're ready or not, and for many it's a time to take stock, evaluate progress, and look toward the new. I started this blog on January 10, 2010, while still in the afterglow of a Christmas celebration. In spite of an occasional hiatus, I feel that I'm still making progress. In fact, I may have completed a project -- a year of postings, which could find their way into a hard-copy book -- postoccupations 2010 -- in early 2011.

If this book comes to fruition, it will only be finished in the very arbitrary sense of having reached a year's-end milestone. Most of the topics will be threads to pick up and continue in 2011 if not beyond. Maybe I'll even essay to talk about real cessations beyond the artifices of hiatus and year's end.

Meanwhile, Google Blogger is the benevolent storage-and-retrieval device that makes all this possible. My loose threads are cataloged as 'labels' and my false starts are stored as 'drafts.' Fa la la la la, la la la lah indeed!

Happy New Year!