With the two weeks of break between semesters, there will be time to spread Christmas love, joy and solidarity with family and friends. Also nearing is the warm spirit of renewal—a sense that comes with the turn of the calendar page.

I love my break between fall and winter semesters. I’m sure you all do, as well. But to be honest, something has been gnawing at the epicenter of my very being (and no, it’s not that Carrot Top has been relegated to the bottom of Center Stage’s list of possible performers).

What has been gnawing at me? The uber-celebration of New Year’s.

Explanations from people as to why New Year’s is so important are resoundingly similar:

John, it’s a chance to start over and celebrate. / John, the beginning of a new year is an opportunity for me to be what I wasn’t last year. / John, New Year’s is fun; you’re just a cynical idiot.

But I’m not cynical. It isn’t the mere fact of celebrating New Year’s that bothers me. It’s the fact that we forget that there are 364 other days of the year where change is possible.

Every day of the year we can celebrate change. Why not kick our bad habits and start good ones every turning of the month, week or day? Why is it that society only sees a cause for personal change at the start of a new year? What is keeping us from changing today?

No one but ourselves is stopping us from eating less trans fats, studying instead of partying or setting fire to the Xbox.

Frankly, there is nothing different about the change of Dec. 31 to Jan. 1 from the change of March 31 to April 1…except for the fact that there is no society-approved moment to kiss someone when the clock strikes midnight.

I haven’t always been a believer in the power of the New Year’s Eve Kiss. In my life, whenever the clock changed, the only people around were either blood relatives or missionaries. And to be frank, it isn’t the kind of moment I would want to share with mom or Elder Madsen.

But the kiss should mean so much. We limit the kiss’ potential for good when we limit it to just once a year. Whoever started it was sorely mistaken if he or she thought one little peck could solve a year’s worth of trouble.

In his book The Greatest Salesman in the World, Og Mandino encourages us to greet each day with love in our hearts. A kiss just puts his principle into practice—a daily practice.

This sort of practice, done daily or at the least monthly, could only help the diverse crises in the world.

Don’t you think the world would be a bit brighter if Osama bin Laden woke up and found someone lovely with whom to share a cave smooch with his breakfast? Or, here on campus, what better way to bridge political ideologies than to have the relentlessly conservative College Republicans and tree-hugging College Democrats awake to a little peck on the cheek? Maybe with a little daily lovin’ they could learn to respect each other a little more.

After all, those wacky Europeans do it.

The festivities of New Year’s can be lovely—even lovelier if they weren’t forgotten around Jan. 5. We can all change on any day of the week and should allow love to enter our hearts on a more regular basis.

Maybe then Carrot Top will have his way in Rexburg.