Will We Have a Happy New Year?!
Not so sure about that one right now….
Things really suck now
In the last few days leading up to the final holiday of 2023 into the first one of 2024, some people I really love wished me a Happy New Year. Much as I appreciate the sentiments, I had to tell them that I am deferring the notion of those wishes until I see what the New Year yields.
I strive to be a relatively positive person, albeit one who has a good share of cynicism. And be someone who would like to believe that good wins out more often than evil triumphs. But 2023 has severely tested my outlook.
The reasons should be obvious to anyone with at least half a brain who’s aware of what’s happening (yeah, I mean woke, damnit). But to list a few: Two ongoing wars waged by murderous leaders wreaking death on innocent men, woman and children that those soulless mofos have said will continue without abatement. To name but some of the armed conflicts raging ‘round the globe.
There are moments most every day when I really wonder if the world’s gone stark-raving bonkers, not just ‘round the twist but wobbilly spinning off its axis. Same goes for the American people. The digital media landscape is littered with the daily antics of too many narcissists and attention whores, knaves, fools, dysfunctional and deluded douche canoes, grifters and con artists, rageaholics and haters, scoundrels and scumbuckets plus a plethora of other assorted wackadoodles and low-lifes that I find not just tiring as all hell but useless wastes of space and precious oxygen on the planet.
Not that I wish to get rid of them. They just need to grow up, get smarter, evolve, and grok how the interconnectedness of everything on this fragile orb spinning in space deserves our care if not blessing. An attitude that’s better, fairer, more compassionate and respectful for all that exists is a good starting point.
Then there’s the 2024 election. Fasten your seatbelts, people, it’s gonna be a wild and wacky rollercoaster ride. The proverbial ground underneath me feels like it’s cracking open into a dangerous divide between the at-least rather rational and generally level humans and a horde of angry, resentful and gullible souls who believe notions that lack any factual backing.
The wrong wing misinformation has been busy churning out specious notions about the 1/6/21 Capitol siege being an FBI false flag op and/or a momentous display of patriotism. Neither; cold hard truth is that it was an infantile, no-class display of such gross disrespect for this nation that all the rest of us should be as thoroughly disgusted by it as I am.
The House of Representatives is like a junior high school on laughing gas and crack. The upper Senatorial roll call primarily consists of lower-life forms who, unlike the House, occasionally get something worthwhile done. But government for the people is a near-dead notion.
I finished writing this as I turn 70 – far closer to death than birth. And thinking maybe it’s OK that I not remain on this mortal coil too much longer. Rather than wishing for as many more years as I can eke out, as being alive on this planet can at times feel blissful.
I’ll try my best to hold on to the tatters of a positive outlook, keep hope alive. Maybe if more souls might practice the advice my sister posted a lil while back – she got it as a Christmas mailer from a finance company, so maybe American capitalism isn’t quite as bad as it largely seems. It really isn’t that hard to start making things better by simply being better.
Happy Birthday to you Rob, and Happy New Year too as best we can!