The power of a new day
Chair's Message
Charles Esler, CPA | December 2022/January 2023 Footnote
Editor's note: Updated November 29, 2022
I’ve always appreciated the vibe that accompanies the end of the calendar year.
The fourth quarter seems to be a growing swell of widespread, overall kindness that crescendos right around the end of December before dissipating again at the beginning of the new year. It feels like a culture of kindness takes hold as people are thankful for loved ones, express joy, give to causes more freely and gather together to build memories. This happens regardless of what holiday is being celebrated, if at all, what calendar is being used, or the other differences that exist year-round; for this period of time, folks get caught up in a mass shared experience of free-flowing endorphins and merriment.
The celebration by the masses of the Gregorian New Year acknowledges that hope persists, and that somehow hanging a new calendar with different dogs every month equates to the ability and the right time to start something new and see a future that is somehow better than the past. Whatever the rationale, the result is fantastic.
As alluded to in my last column, for many in our profession, these rituals are all part of the final preparations for the purposeful journey ahead. Winter and spring result in the CPA’s Black Friday, albeit with less people throwing hands over a great deal on tax preparations that are a limited time offer available to the first 10 customers, which have camped out in freezing temperatures in the CPA’s front yard in lawn chairs and sleeping bags and are now caffeine crazed on hot coffee that came from a Yeti bearing the CPA’s logo.
We should also acknowledge that there are others who coexist under this umbrella of joy but who are simply not able to experience it similarly. It’s important to recognize that during this time of the year depression is equally pervasive and felt more strongly by members of our profession and the public in general. Please know there are tools available to those in need and that many are there to help shine a light into the darkness in order to help illuminate the hope that was alluded to in the previous paragraphs.
I would be remiss if I did not mention something about the concerns about the pipeline and the number of future CPAs available to do the work required. As a gift to ourselves, please continue to promote, and recruit to, the profession.
I appreciate all of you and the work you are doing. Thank you. Happy Holidays!
Sincerely,
Charles Esler, CPA
Chair, MNCPA board of directors
boardchair@mncpa.org
