NEW YEAR IS A CHANCE TO BUILD A BETTER COMMUNITY

AS we enter the “festive week of the year’’ everyone starts planning for the next big event after Christmas – yes, New Year’s Eve. The one night of the year that we plan with great anticipation, often to be disappointed that it wasn’t as spectacular as we had planned in our head.

How many New Year’s Eve celebrations end up being less significant than the majority?

A quiet night at home watching fireworks around the globe is often the best night of all as we ponder how the year disappeared in the blink of an eye, and resolutions on how we can be a better version of ourselves swirl around in our head. Enthusiastically we consider new fad diets and exercise routines, joining a fitness group, new ideas for business ventures, fresh beginnings in relationships and good deeds we plan to fulfil as we contemplate that on New Year’s Eve, the slate of the past year will be wiped clean and we start afresh on January 1.

Each year I am reminded of one of the favourite festive movies – ‘New Year’s Eve’ steeped in messages of goodwill and hope. For those not familiar with this little gem, amid the celebrity spotting is a poignant message from leading lady Hilary Swank looking up at the Times Square Ball, hopeful it will be fixed in time to drop at midnight.

She notes: “It’s suspended there to remind us before we celebrate the New Year, to stop and reflect on the year that has gone by. To remember both our triumphs and our mistakes, our promises made and broken. The times we opened ourselves up to great adventures or closed ourselves down for fear of getting hurt, because that is what the New Year is all about – getting another chance. A chance to forgive, to do better, to do more, to give more, to love more. And stop worrying about what if and start embracing what would be. So when that ball drops at midnight, let’s remember to be nice to each other, kind to each other. And not just tonight but all year long.”

As 2019 approaches, it is timely to reflect on the past 12 months and the significant achievements in our growing city. Yet at the same time we cannot ignore the emerging problems, and the solution is a collective one, not just the responsibility of local government, the business community or the politicians.

The key to ensuring a united community is the unified thoughts and actions of the three protagonists, being the individual, the institutions of society and the community. Maybe fixing our problems does start with the simple step of just being nice to each other, greeting our neighbours as we take a stroll to buy the morning paper, caring about the people who live next to us.

The Gold Coast was once a tiny seaside village, with great charm. Yet each day we see an escalation in crime that has led to an increase in domestic violence and homeless people, that many of us choose to turn our minds and eyes away from. Our village has disappeared, and along with it a sense of safety and belonging.

As individuals we cannot solve crime, but we can be more kind and caring towards our fellow human beings, to recreate a special bond that makes each of us feel that we do belong to a community that cares.

So perhaps we take small steps, like we do when we start a new diet at the beginning of the year, to get to know each other in our community a little better. If we all do this as a collective New Year’s resolution, the spirit of a kind and caring village will permeate.

Let’s all make our New Year’s resolution to be better people first and foremost, to care a little more for each other, to nurture this culture in our families and to be educators of a stronger sense of moral obligations for our children and our neighbourhood and together we will build a kinder community.

Surely, this gesture alone will make the Gold Coast a better place than the year before.

Let’s all add “to be kind and caring to each other’’ at the top of our New Year’s resolution list.