The last day of 2020 is today. Tomorrow we will start a New Year. I was pondering this morning about why we decided to roll the calendar over in December / January instead of April / May. Doesn’t Spring symbolize rebirth much better than Winter. It’s kind of depressing really, let’s celebrate when we have the longest nights and the shortest days of the year. When the Great Wide World is dark and cold. An excuse to make merry during the most depressing time of the year perhaps.
Then after the cold winter’s night of merry making it is time to recalibrate. Out with the old in with the new, as the saying goes. A time to evaluate. A time of reflection and resolution. What didn’t work in 2020? What goals did I achieve? What goals didn’t I achieve? Who’s goals were they, anyway? Did I enjoy the pursuit?
“People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.” ― Dale Carnegie
After 2020, my goal for 2021 is fun. I was thinking I should set my aspirations on something achievable. We say to each other, have a Happy New Year. No one says, have a sad, shitty, new year – like last year. Did you hear about the new strain of COVID-19? More fearsome and deadly than the last strain, so deadly and dangerous that you will need to take refuge in your basement and lock all the doors.
The Pandemic lockdowns have closed many of the avenues for fun and the news flow made it worse. That is the first resolution on my list for 2021 – NO NEWS. I get most of mine using an RSS feed aggregator, (Feedly). I can customize it any way I want and even with that, it was still a big downer in 2020. I would start each morning with a cup of coffee, perusing the news. In retrospect it was the biggest waste of time and energy in my entire day.
“Have fun, even if it’s not the same kind of fun everyone else is having.” ― C.S. Lewis
My first job in the Great Wide World was a paper boy, I was about 12 years old. Back then, I would always open to the sports section first, to see if there were any stories about the Chicago Cubs, (fun) before perusing the headlines, (not fun). I have been a news junkie since. 50 years of waking up and checking the news, to see what’s going on in the Great Wide World, but it stops in 2020. I’m done, the news is just not fun, in fact it’s not even new, it’s just the same old shit, over and over.
“Sometimes you just have to jump in a mud puddle because it’s there. Never get so old that you forget about having fun.” ― Tom Giaquinto
I will still have coffee and do some morning reading in the aggregator but I am going to delete all of the Feeds under the headings; Economics, Finance, News and Politics. I will only read the feeds labeled; Archery, Bicycle, Disc Golf, Fishing, Gardening, Gear, Golf, Guns, Health, Hiking, Hunting, Music, Outdoors, Photography, Reading, Spirituality, Survival, Woodworking and Writing.
“We are game-playing, fun-having creatures, we are the otters of the universe.” ― Richard Bach
In 2021, I am going to sacrifice everything else in the name of fun. If it’s not fun, I want nothing to do with it. When the establishment comes for our fun the way they did in 2020, it’s a wake up call. It’s time to double down on having fun. Make your New Year’s resolution now and stick with it brothers and sisters. HAVE FUN.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!