Recently, I’ve found myself drawn to the 1-800-got-junk TV ad, which tells potential customers that “We make junk disappear. All you have to do is point.” It’s particularly satisfying to see all the actors pointing at a pile of stuff that magically disappears, leaving a space with graphically enhanced gleaming sparkles. I know that this company is in the business of getting rid of physical junk, but it occurred to me that the whole "point and disappear" promise is a great metaphor for the aspirational way I’d like to head into the New Year. Emotionally stacking up a big pile of the disappointments, losses and hard lessons learned — the junk that has sucked the life out of the last year — and magically pointing it away. Just the idea of it is tantalizing.
Leave it to New Yorkers to figure out a way to make the idea real by fashioning a way to purge the nonphysical junk that is weighing on many of us in these final days of 2022. This Wednesday, a crowd of the likeminded is expected in Times Square for the annual Good Riddance Day. Since 2007, New Yorkers and visitors to the city have come by the hundreds for a ritualized process to get rid of bad memories. Event organizers say Good Riddance Day is based on a Latin American tradition of stuffing a doll with objects representing last year’s bad memories and setting it on fire.
Participants receive a pre-printed note with a prompt that reads, “I want to say Good Riddance to:" and just enough space for brief comments. Some offer their feelings and thoughts anonymously, but surprisingly, most leave their names, and even their town or neighborhood.
What they say reveals the smallest indignities. Like Laura, who told reporters she said good riddance to “bad jobs and two-faced people.” Angela visiting from North Carolina wished “bad luck and negativity” to go away. Charity, on the other hand, looked internally and said good riddance to “being dependent and wimpy” along with Kristel who wanted “the walls I’ve built” to be gone. After writing down their sentiments, they all take their note to a shredder and enjoy the satisfaction of watching the machine mince the paper into bits of what otherwise could have been confessional confetti. According to past years’ reporting by the New York Daily News, this annual event draws so many, people end up waiting in long lines for their turn at the shredder.
On the Good Riddance Day official website, the organizers say this communal catharsis also offers the benefit of an instant community celebration for putting the bad stuff behind. After the participants purge and shred their bad memories, the website says each “will be able to break through the finish line with your own personal cheering section.”
I know Good Riddance Day is not quite the same as disappearing hurt, pain, and loss in the snap of a finger, but it is healthier than carrying the heaviness of the old year’s experiences and it helps put it in perspective. As Author Vern McLellan reminds us, “What the New Year brings to you will depend a great deal on what you bring to the New Year.” Instead of papering over the tough stuff and greeting the New Year with wishes and resolutions, I’m preparing for a realistic reset for 2023. After all, even the most brutal wind is a lot lighter when it’s at your back.
