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Happy Old Year
It seems to have become fashionable — even de rigeur — to observe the end of every year with “Good riddance!” It’s a trend I’ve noticed for the last several years, but it has doubtless been going on longer than that. Every December 31, we’re all inundated with online commentary insisting that the year now ending has been a terrible one, and we’re glad to finally see the back of it. Often it’s just a throwaway comment in a story about something else, repeated as if it goes without saying (“It was an awful year, but there were some interesting phones released!”). It’s predictable, and it’s tiresome.
I’m not claiming that every year is a good one. But it’s no less reasonable to say that every year is a bad one, and that’s the impression one would get by surveying the online chatter from each December. My bet is that most of these comments come from people whose lives are actually going fine, but it’s a knee-jerk reflex to sound disgruntled all the time. I suppose the reasoning must be that contentment results only from ignorance, so griping and complaining are a badge of intelligence and awareness. But words have an effect, and I find it depressing to be surrounded by so many people who are so determined to be unhappy (or at least to portray themselves as unhappy).
If you’re someone who has genuinely had a bad year, then I understand. (I’ve been there; for me, 2002 was my Year of Hell, a year I don’t ever want to see repeated in my life.) I hope the end of the year brings you some sense of turning the page, and that 2020 brings better things.
But to the habitually disaffected Internet commenters who just parrot the received wisdom that it was a lousy year, I would say this: Give it a rest. Why not go for a little originality, and say something about the things that were good about the year? I bet if you try, you can think of something.
Published in General
For me, 2019 was a good one. I will be sorry to see it go. Not an annus mirabilus, but a solidly good one.
2018? An annus horribilus. My spouse died, my father died, my father-in-law died, I had a trip to the emergency room and I lost two jobs. Definitely glad to see it end.
Good for you, BXO! I agree. I rarely have a relationship with anyone who only has complaints. We are all too blessed to focus on the negative. Thanks!
I have a very low bar. I’m still alive and moving on my own. It was a very good year.
I can’t do it, man. This year was rough on me.
I am sorry. I wish you peace in the new year.
I agree with the general idea, though. Nobody likes complainers, so I really only gripe and complain when I’m around you guys. You give me that outlet so that I can be Mr. Happiness in the offline world.
You’ve never struck me as a complainer, Drew. I perceive your nature to be thoughtful, not morose. And you’re funny, too! Come complain any time.
After being diagnosed with epilepsy two years ago, I finally made it through not only a full calendar year, but fourteen months and going without a seizure.
And, on a less serious topic, my apartment complex made a deal with the local cable company such that I will be getting free cable and internet until my lease is up. And then it’ll only be about $5-6 more than what I was paying for internet alone.
So, yeah. 2019 wasn’t so bad.
You haven’t seen his PIT persona.
I think I had one good year after I turned 13. My life has been an unhappy one. The humbugs Bartholomew mentions probably expect their years to be happy so they are easily dissappointed. I will be surprised if I find 2020 good.
More importantly, 2020 will see strong reductions of poverty in the the poorest countries and impressive medical advances. I’m hopefully that pluripotent stem cells (the non-controversial kind) can be used to more effectively treat neurological diseases. Also, bacteriophages.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI3tsmFsrOg
And from my experiences in the PIT (which I tried and quickly left), I never will! ;-) Just not my cup ‘o tea.
Join us! Join us!
Look guys, 2019 was the year they made Cats into a movie. Now try and tell me it was a good year.
Why let Hollyweird silliness mess up a perfectly good year?
I liked 2019. My middle son married a delightful young woman. I got a chance to visit Vietnam. (Americans and Trump are popular there.) I got a great new job. Paid off all the debts accumulated during my wife’s illness and burial. Saw my granddaughter walk. Saved some money. Got five books written. Like I said earlier, it wasn’t the greatest year ever, but it was good enough I am sorry to see it end.
I have always thought that the evolutionary theory, punctuated equilibrium – long periods of stability followed by catastrophic change- characterizes individual lives and not just clades. We have many years where life is pretty much the same as it always has been, for good or bad. There are gradual changes of course-we age, we graduate, we meet new friends or lose old ones-but overall we perceive our lives as stable. But we also now and then experience periods of tumultuous change-again for good or bad: deaths, financial, health, marriage, birth-often in rapid succession, where our lives are irrevocably altered. Such was my 2019 and so my life in 2020 will be very different from what it was in 2019. But from such catastrophic change, new beginnings emerge. I can’t say I’m looking forward to it, but as time heals, I become more curious about the future.
Just tryin’ t’ keep it light, man. ; )
2019 was good for both of us. I am working on a “2019 in pictures” post for my personal blog over at RushBabe49.com. I will link to it here when finished.
Not very original, but 2019 produced our first granddaughter (second grandchild – they look very much alike, but personalities are quite different; not original since lots of people have grandchildren, but new for us).
We now live close enough to be able to drive to visit those grandchildren without having to buy and schedule airplane travel (and being newly retired we can do so whenever anybody wants).
And in 2019 global and US economic growth significantly increased the capital in my retirement accounts, so it looks like we will be able to afford the retirement that was thrust upon me in 2018.
And in 2019 I had to work harder at church choir participation than for any church choir before (we moved and joined a new church at the very end of 2018 and the choir undertook some a lot of challenging music in 2019; harder choir work is a good challenge in my new status as retiree).
My brother moved in 2019 from California to a town about 90 miles from the town into which we moved in 2018, so we can see each other more frequently than we did before.
I was going to try to turn this into a separate post, but for me 2019 was strange. On the surface, it was at best a mixed bag. There was definitely some good stuff during the year, but in terms of my personal outlook, I think 2019 was a year of disillusionment: it was the year when I finally began to let go of some hopes and dreams and to accept that some of the things I want are never going to happen.
The funny thing is, I actually feel pretty positive about that. As long as you hold onto unrealistic desires, you’re pretty much guaranteed to be discontented. Letting go of those desires is quite liberating, and accepting reality for what it is (when you’re finally able to do it) is an enormously satisfying step.
On a personal level, I think it ought to be possible for everyone to find some good things and some bad things about any particular year. But the kind of grumblers I had in mind in my post are people who are probably not even thinking of their personal lives at all: they’re just people who subscribe to the general leftist zeitgeist idea that everything is terrible.
By coincidence, I find that @jameslileks touched on the same theme quite effectively in today’s Bleat (though applied to the entire decade and not just the year).
Great discovery, BXO. A productive life has to do with how we use our energy. Holding on to old dreams takes energy–keeping them in the background, and when they show up, wrestling with them and ourselves, whether we indulge them, curse them or try to banish them. It’s liberating because now you can put all that energy into your present life and also into being creative and moving forward. I know. I’ve been there.
I think SeaWriter echoes something I’ve found, too—if you have a really horrible year (…or two, or three… 1996, 1997, 2010, …) to compare it to, you can regard with contentment any year in which, for example, no one you love suddenly dies.
Especially if the year in question includes watching your grandson learn to walk!
I’m sorry you’ve had a rough time, Drew—and, like Susan, I don’t think of you as a complainer. Not at all. So you’re obviously not complaining enough, and should up your game a bit.
I think a lot of it is perspective. Having a perspective of bad experiences is one way to moderate the small disappointments. “Compared to last year, this is great!” But there are many other ways to build a different perspective. In Unity, we refer to “an attitude of gratitude.” (I’m sure this is not just Unity, of course.) Developing a focus on the good things that happen and trying to find the blessings in events that do not at first seem to be good is a discipline that helps one remember good things, and also to build a different perspective.
Taking another example, if one believes in an afterlife and believes that one’s loved ones will not be in pain in that afterlife, then one should not overly mourn the loss of a relative who was suffering pain and other health problems. My father died six months ago. He was 84 and getting to where he couldn’t take care of himself or get up out of bed or a chair on his own. He no longer suffers the pain he had suffered for years. His soul marches on, stronger than ever. I really believe that. Should I curse the year that took him? Again, perspective.
Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Don’t go there!
But I just got permission, ’Hant!
Yeah, yeah. Take it to the limit, Drew. 😜
For me, 2019 had it’s ups and downs, but was good overall. Just because I’m cynical doesn’t mean I’m unhappy. This coming year is going to have it’s challenges, but I think it’ll be ok.
I had my boss tell me I was worth my weight in gold, and if you saw me, you’d realize that that was a pretty sizeable fortune.
Is he going to pay you that worth?
Ha, ha, ha. Though he does pay me pretty well.