Well, with your use of the words "new beginnings", Ivanova's ending naration in "Sleeping In Light" came to mind as she there uses those words. The way Claudia Christian delivered that line always seems to make me wistful and hopeful when I hear it.
For reference, here's the text of what Ivanova says at the end of SiL (excluding the last bit about Delenn).
Babylon 5 was the last of the Babylon stations; there would never be another. It changed the future, and it changed us. It taught us that we have to create the future, or others will do it for us. It showed us that we have to care for one another because if we don't, who will? And that true strength sometimes comes from the most unlikely places. Mostly though, I think it gave us hope... that there could always be new beginnings... even for people like us.
The line about us having to care for each other is also quite powerful, I think, especially with it being juxtaposed in the episode with Franklin and a medical team trying desperately to save a pak'ma'ra.
Perhaps you could in some way draw the connection between helping others being a means through which one can find hope for themselves. That in the new year, one can resolve to help others in ways they haven't before, and in doing so begin to create a new, refreshed direction in their lives.
Such thought leads me to remember a quote I found online from Mark Twain: "The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up." Give of yourself and get in return. I think there's even some Taoism in there: only by being empty can you become full.
I haven't looked through your previous articles, so forgive me if you've already written on this quote before. Anyway, it's a thought.
