Have a Happy and Safe New Year!

Dad hated New Years Eve. He hated New Years Eve for the same reason he hated July 4th. No, we didn’t have a dog that went nuts, and no one ever came close to burning down the house, though those things certainly do happen.

No, my father was an ophthalmologist, essentially an eye surgeon, and it seemed like he was always on call on those holidays.

Now I’m on call myself these days for my day job at Getty Images. I work on the Search team, so when I get called it’s generally because the search engines aren’t doing their job and our customers cannot search for images. When you run the largest and most prestigious stock, news, sports, and entertainment photography site on the planet and search is down, a lot of newspapers, online media outlets, advertisers and the like are left twiddling their thumbs instead of finding images they need. And that’s bad.

But when Dad got called on New Years Eve or July 4th, that was different. More often than not, somebody was in serious danger of losing their eyesight for the rest of their lives, in one or both eyes, due to an accident with fireworks. And the calls came in every year. And Dad would cringe every time the phone rang, because he knew what it probably meant.

Now I’m not going to lie to you. I like fireworks just as much as the next guy. But let’s face it, the shows the professionals put on are much better than anything you can throw together in your back yard, regardless of your budget. And while things don’t always go as planned, even in professionally run shows, at least your face is never directly over the explosives.

So however you celebrate, have fun, but be safe. It’s not worth losing your eyesight.

And beyond the evening’s celebrations, here’s wishing you a very happy, prosperous, and fulfilled New Year!