It’s just another year for some folks, but it’s a fresh start for the rest of us.

The onset of a new year brings with it the idea of a fresh start for many people. I used to push against that notion, resisting the temptation to let go of what happened to make room for what could happen. As the great Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader, once told his only son before he sliced off the kid’s right hand, “It is useless to resist.”

There was no point in trying to deny that all the pomp and celebratory excess of New Year’s Eve in general is not for nothing. Why am I trying to play myself? I reset goals and refocus my priorities every year right around the end of it. I like making resolutions because they give me something to work towards, and (whether it’s a social construction or a psychological one) I can’t let time pass in my life and not be working towards something. Some years, my resolutions are more ambitious than other years. I’ve set a couple of ambitious goals for this year and applied a certain bit of pressure on myself to meet them. They won’t meet themselves.

Hope

2023 was an ugly year for global society. War and more war. Humans continue to commit heinous atrocities against each other when we should all just chill out and focus on enjoying the precious time we have in this version of reality. We bicker and fight while life goes by quickly. The first month of 2024 is already a wrap. We leap into February and receive an extra day, but that month zooms by. Spring and baseball, summer and barbeques, the months are going to fall off the calendar soon, mark these words that I’ve already marked here. Before we know it, those of us in the U.S. will be staring down Election Day in November. I do not feel good about the road leading up to that day and what may come after it because I believe that Donald Trump is going to win the election and immediately make it about getting revenge instead of making America great, which he failed to do the last time he was elected.

I’ve yet to find a political party that encapsulates everything that I stand for,  or even just most of what I do, so I vote for who I believe will make my life and our country better, like some other folks do. The last four presidential election cycles have yielded uninspiring candidates, at best, so I haven’t voted for anyone that actually stood a chance of being elected. People have criticized me for that, but a principled vote isn’t a wasted one. Democrans and Republicrats are two points on the same circle, but constituents of either are encouraged to hate their opposition. The sleight of hand creates enough of a distraction that those constituents focus on what’s going on there instead of demanding better conditions for all of us here and now. Each side wants to beat the other side just to flex and not to fix. If fixing things were actually a priority, there’s no way two geriatric lunatics (who present their lunacy in different ways) would ever be the primary candidates. What makes Trump dangerous, and popular, is that he goes far off the rails and his people ride right along with him. He could care less about anyone other than himself, and he’ll undo the fabric of our nation if it pleases him. I have no doubt that it would.

“Why did you call this section ‘hope’? You are bumming me out.”

I hope that we survive no matter what happens in the upcoming presidential election. Biden isn’t good for the U.S., and Trump is worse. We’re in bad shape either way.

Harmony

But I don’t lose sleep over it. Not yet at least. I keep a clear head before bed. I focus on the things I am grateful for—my family, the roof over our heads, and the general blessings that we have that I will never take for granted. That puts me in a good mood; it puts my mind at ease, and I’m asleep before I know it. It’s positive thinking, right?

Everyone from my parents and friends to my teachers to Bob Marley to that blue fish from Finding Nemo has espoused about keeping a positive frame of mind. It hadn’t really worked for me up until I think I figured it out. I was always trying to understand what that meant from that person’s perspective, you know? I thought that I had to see it their way in order to apply it to my life. That’s a bit limited thinking on my end. It wasn’t until about a year ago that I started to lay my foundation for creating a positive frame of mind. I started with gratitude and went from there. Instead of lamenting I was thankful.

It’s helped me progress on a project that I’ve been working on for years. Completing it before the end of 2024 is one of those ambitious goals that I set for myself. Approaching the project with gratitude, thankful for the ability to even work on such a self-indulgent thing, has been liberating. I don’t hate sitting down to do it.

One of the other goals I made for 2024 is to bring more harmony into my life, and I think that starts with being grateful for everything.