A New Year

No resolutions except to live my life the best way possible. I am a saxophone player, so I practice. I want to stay healthy, so I try to eat right and exercise (as usual). I want to be someone people can count on as a friend, a dad, an uncle, or a brother, so that’s what I will strive to be.

I feel different this year. I have no parent alive to call or talk to when I need to. I still have all of my siblings. I am the oldest of four. Dad’s passing last year has made us even closer than we were before. Strong family bonds make this life tolerable.

I feel like life has no direction. What is happening in politics, nationalism, and hostilities disturbs me. The world is heading towards a place we don’t want to be. For a while, I was naive enough to believe that people were getting past the differences that had divided us in the past. I was wrong.

I hate politics. Why can’t people just live together without hurting one another? Why can’t we help each other? The fact that we don’t live that way tells a story about humans. We’re stupid! Unless we change, I fear we will destroy ourselves at some point.

We began the year with harsh, cold weather. We don’t get much snow where I live, but we did this week. It has been extremely cold for the past 4 days. Things are going back to normal now. The snow is melting. The roads have been cleared. People are back to their usual business. I hope that this is the extent of and last of this kind of weather for us this year.

I suspect the coldness of world politics will continue for some time. It is a new year, but the same old shit seems to make things difficult continually. I pray that one day, we will get our heads unstuck from our asses.