A New Year family tradition

We do not have too many traditions in my family.  We are pretty unconventional and non-traditional (I will spare you the boring details).  We do have one New Year tradition, however, we always watch the New Year's Concert from Vienna.  I started watching the concert in the 80's; as a teenager living in Romania, the event gave me a sense of connection to the free world.  The "Blue Danube Waltz", one of the signature pieces of music performed every year at the concert, offered me the certainty that the world is connected, even when stupid political barriers are imposed on people.  After all, the Danube flows through Vienna and makes its way all the way to Romania, ending its course in the Black Sea.

I brought the tradition with me to the US, my adopted country.  Now, when I am part of the free world, the concert offers me a different sense of connection: the connection to the free-spirited world of my youth and young adulthood, full of idealism, where everything and anything was possible.

This year again, I enjoyed a glass of Champagne listening to the music of the Strauss family and feeling connected the the past, present and the future.

A happy and prosperous New Year to everyone.