Happy (Belated) New Year!

If ya’ll hadn’t noticed, we are well into the new year. It may seem like I’m a little late to offer up my thoughts on the year that just passed and the one to come. Everyone else – and I do mean everyone – offered up their thoughts a couple of weeks ago.

We are a society where it more unusual to not share your thoughts with everyone. Type “Taylor Swift” into your favorite search engine and you can find any sort of opinion you are looking for. We are a society that is constantly preaching to the choir, each of us with our own opinion and the venue to release that opinion out into the universe. So what makes me think that my opinion on anything has any relevance to anyone?

So, my thoughts about 2024 seemingly serve no relevance. They have no value beyond a half-dozen or so people who will read this. And myself, of course, which is why I continue. I have a book on writing by the great Ray Bradbury. In it, he talks about the natural insecurity of any artist, that what we do is just a pale imitation of what someone else did before us much better, that there are no new ideas.

Bradbury made the point that there is only one me, and what makes a story special is how I tell it, that no one can a story in the same way I do.

So … 2024.

This is my 59^th year and here’s what I know about the new year. We just passed MLK day, Valentine’s and Fat Tuesday are coming up. St. Patrick’s is in March, Easter in April. Memorial Day and Mother’s Day in May. Flag Day and Juneteenth in June. Fourth of July then the long stretch to Labor Day. Halloween in October then we finish out the year with Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Some really bad things are going to happen this year. Some people will die needlessly. Many will be born and young people will further assert their right to take over the popular culture. Sports teams will win and lose championships. The weather will be bad somewhere and there will be earthquakes, tornados and hurricanes will wreck what some of us have built.

Politically, almost no one will be happy. No matter your political slant, you will be unhappy because not everyone thinks like you and your friends, and if only everyone would live their lives the way you think they should be lived, then everything would be just fine.

We are heading into a presidential election in which no one is real thrilled about. Seriously, is this the best we can do in choosing a leader?

In business, rich people will continue to get rich, seemingly clueless about how everyone else is struggling. Who gives a fuck if Jeff Bezos used the money he gained from me and people like me to launch himself into space and buy a yacht that is nearly as big as Rhode Island? Most of us look at our cities and see that we are failing to take care of those among us who need the most help, who in turn are left to destroy our cities with an insidious pestilence.

In popular culture, Hollywood will continue to bring us entertainment that appeals to the lowest common denominator. Its participants will act like petulant demigods who truly believe that what they say is important. They are proud of their part in making us all more stupid. We all know they are the stupid ones because everyone is famous now. We will continue impart meaning upon the 21st Century snake oil merchants selling a brand to their Instagram followers.

We look at all of this and rightfully shake our heads in disgust as we scroll to find the next story about a reality show couple that may or may not have gotten married. We participate in the schadenfreude of bridezillas posting on reddit, knowing that we would never act like that. We make fun of Karens and post videos of getting laid off.

I feel I should offer a reminder that any historian or sociologist could explain much better – things aren’t much different than any other in eras of our history. Get a time machine and go anywhere and you would talk to people who felt that the world was going to hell in a handbag. At any point on our timeline we have had people in power and people who were exploited by those in power. I’m not sure what would make anyone think that will ever change. The only thing that changes are the ones in power. The best you can do is try and hold on to what is yours.

It may not seem it, but we are living in the best of times. I realize this when I think about how I need to go and get a vaccination for shingles. Shingles is caused by the varicella-zoster virus, which is the same virus that causes chicken pox. If you had chicken pox, the virus still lives within you and can pop up again as shingles.

A vaccine for chicken pox was developed and released in the 1990s, which means there are several generations alive who never had the chicken pox and will probably never have to worry about the shingles. However, there are a bunch of us that when chicken pox was going through the school, there was a good chance you’d get it. I don’t remember much about when I got the chicken pox when I was 7 years old, but I know my mother covered me in calamine lotion and that I was miserable.

Now my kids will have never known the chicken pox, nor will it even really register for them. It’s sort of the way I feel about tetanus or polio, but both of those diseases were a huge concern to my parents and grandparents. So, I need to make an appointment to get vaccinated for shingles.

The point is that medically, we are in better shape than we’ve ever been. I can remember that if someone contracted the HIV virus it was pretty much a death sentence. It no longer is. I remember uncles who had to drink butter milk for ulcers. When’s the last time you heard of anyone with an ulcer? We can get new hips and knees and new valves for our hearts.

While we do still have climate change to worry about, the car in my driveway uses less gas and emits fewer toxins into the air than the 1974 Monte Carlo that was my first vehicle. And while I think wind generators and solar farms ruin the landscape, I appreciate what they do.

It’s not a big thing, but I can get apples at the supermarket year round. I have an infinite number of options when it comes to filling my free time, and almost as many options when it comes to buying toothpaste or shampoo. I can call my brother in California and it isn’t a long distance phone call. My kids play games on the computers with people from all over the world.

There are a million things I could list about life today that my grandfather would have thought was a miracle. And yet, we all seem so miserable. Still, in the coming year, many good things will happen. Families will welcome new members, neighbors will help out neighbors, someone will get a new job, scholarships will be awarded to deserving students, and people will fall in love. I predict I will smile at least a million times in 2024 and I will strive to laugh and smile every day knowing that there are people who love me and care about me.

For any year, that’s about all I need.