Happy Better Year

I used to do an annual feature on this date.  I used to say “I hope (the upcoming year) is as good for you as (the current year) was for…”  and then I’d list all the people who won awards or celebrated big events or achievements.  It was as positive and hopeful a New Years greeting as I could write.  

I haven’t done that for the last couple of years.  It’s hard to wish any year since 2017 on anyone.  

I never understood the ritual of cheering a new year.  Who knows how the year will unfold?  Maybe the year you’re leaving behind was better.  But this year, I think we are all happy to — if nothing else — say goodbye to 2021.   We go into 2022 with our eyes wide open (well, some of us) — there’s a pandemic surge, Trump is not in handcuffs and leg irons, the Supreme Court is taking away our freedoms, and Republican congressmen are committing acts of high treason.  

But hopefully, with a White House that now cares and wants to do right by its citizens (what a concept), vaccines protecting those not stupid enough to shun them, the January 6 committee, criminal investigations in New York and Georgia, and Adele appearing in Vegas — there may be a glimmer or two of hope.   There was a year when World War II ended.  There was essentially a year when the Depression ended.  Same with the Spanish Flu, polio (oh wait… people weren’t morons — everyone took the vaccine), and Roseanne was fired.

So maybe this will be one of those years — or at least a turning point to lead to one of those years.  At this point, I think that’s the best we can hope for.  You don’t have to win awards or invent a new phone to have a great year.   If we’re all better off to any degree one year from today that’ll be worth celebrating.

Here’s wishing you and yours a happy and healthy New Year.

Ken

from By Ken Levine