At least so far.
Same old political deceit as 2025. Same old price hikes as 2025. Same old angst about everything as 2025.
But then, at this age, what is ever really new? In my earlier years, like 30-40-50 years ago, so many things happened for the first time. First time falling in love, first marriage, first child. First time buying a house, a new car, first time cutting down a Christmas tree, the first time getting a puppy. All these first-time experiences had power, they had excitement and wonder. This is what life is about: the smack-you-in-the-face of the newness of it all, the amazement you feel every time something unique is in front of you.
Now, all these years later, there isn't much new stuff left to happen. I am sure I'm not going to fall in love again, or buy a house or a new car or a new puppy. Certainly not going to have those kind of one-in-a-lifetime adventures because they can only be new once. There isn't the passion of discovering the rush you get in your earlier years. (In fact, sometimes there's no passion at all, except for the passionate screaming at what is happening to our cities, our state, country, world.)
So here we are, two weeks into 2026 and I am already feeling jaded and tired of everything, when a new year should give at least of month of hope and energic striving for something good. But perhaps it's not 2026's fault, nor the fault of all the crap that is happening right now in the world. Maybe it's simply that I am getting old and holding on to hope feels more and more useless and almost child-like. Maybe being depressed and cynical is a more realistic approach to the world. After all, being depressed and cynical means that any tiny ray of sunshine (metaphorically) can be good. Maybe we don't need an entire sunny day, a ten minute window of blue sky might help.
We'll see.
Above is my attempt at trying to lighten the mood.
