Yesterday marked the 25th New Year’s Day since the world witnessed the dawn of a new millennium. Wow. Just saying that conjures up a feeling of a magnificent gift; a gift fated to us as we were born in an age where we would step over that threshold into the next one thousand years. It’s a little breath-taking.
In the pre-dawn hours of January 1, 2000, the fishing and farming families of Pitt Island, New Zealand walked and rode to the far eastern part of their island intent on being the first people on the planet to witness the dawn of the next thousand years. How cool is that?
I guess I like to embrace big moments; they are meaningful to me. So much so that I saved both the Chicago Tribune and New York Times Saturday, January 1, 2000 editions (which explains why I readily know about Pitt Island.)
Naturally, the papers also covered the parallel big story of that day; the dreaded worry over “Y2K” or the “Millennial bug.” As most of us know, the concern was that computers wouldn’t know how to process the date correctly. Would they read “00” as 1900 or understand the concept of advancing to 2000 from 1999? Would they get confused? Shut down?
Concerns included potential power outages, financial disruptions and even catastrophic failures in air travel and nuclear systems. No one wanted to fly on New Year’s Eve 1999. Airlines didn’t even want their planes in the air. At Chicago’s O’Hare airport, most outbound flights ended at 8:00 p.m.
But then…it happened. Or, more precisely, nothing happened. As the Chicago Tribune reported, “Y2K is Okay.” ATMs and phones and city services were working. There were no mass transportation issues. “War Rooms” set up to manage emergencies were quiet. The computers understood what to do (and they didn’t even have artificial intelligence yet.)
And so the world partied. Dare I say it? They partied like it was 1999. Prince understood the significance.
And in our own little microcosm part of the world, we celebrated too. On December 31st, 1999, my family took part in a small get-together with friends who had children similar in age to our son, Will. He was ten.
There were noise-makers, hats, silly glasses and a sense of community that we were celebrating something larger than ourselves. To quote the Tribune article:
“In the first millennium, the group ruled since communal bonds were necessary for survival. In the second, the self was paramount. And in the third? The evidence is still emerging, but here is a guess…the world will return to a sense of community–but this time it’s by choice, not necessity.”
Unfortunately, this was written before the onslaught of social media. The Self is stronger than ever. I would like to hope that now that we are 25 years into this millennium, we are finding space for both choices. One great example of the latter is our global, caring blogging community!
If you can spot it in the newspaper photo below on the left, another far different “new beginning” happened on the eve of the new millennium.
It states:
“Boris Yeltsin, who has been plagued by heart and other conditions, for most of his eight years as President unexpectedly announced his resignation on December 31st, 1999. He said, ‘Russia must enter the new millennium with new politicians, new faces, new intelligent, strong and energetic people.’”
And in that moment, Vladimir Putin became Russia’s acting president. He won his first election that March. It is difficult to comprehend the scope of this single moment happening exactly a quarter of a century ago and all that has happened since then.
And 25 years later, in that same microscopic corner I referenced, Will grew up, married and has an excellent job in the crypto industry. I joined a company where I thrived and felt a great sense of accomplishment. I was also able to spend significantly more time with my mother, which brought some peace and answered some questions; but even moving through unique new millennial years has its limits. It was wise not to hope too much.
I’m sure readers here remember that stroke of midnight as we moved into 21st century technicolor like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. I hope those ensuing years were good. Some say everything changed. Others say nothing did. But either way, it was a gift of a colossal new beginning. I’d like to think that this 1999-2000 moment rolls over yearly now and that we can still feel that millennial breadth and guidance and hope while we make life’s big or small adjustments.
Leavingthedooropen.com 
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