Thoughts for the New Year

How is it 2026 already? How is it possible that this century is one-quarter over already? It’s certainly had its ups and downs. This fall ended on a sad note for us, with the loss of our beloved elderly dog after a long illness. We miss our loveable furry companion but are finally getting used to a dog-less house.

Then December brought sadness coupled with horror at the shooting at Brown University shortly before the holidays, in a classroom in the Barus and Holley building, where my husband has worked for decades (he was not there at the time, mercifully). Amidst all the roiling emotions, another was the surreal feeling of watching national news reporters standing in front of a building on a campus that is so familiar. It felt like one of those strange bad dreams you sometimes have, though nightmare is more like it.

We can all feel so sorry for the students who were killed, along with a corollary shooting of a very distinguished MIT professor, as part of this killing spree. So much promise, then such a terrible loss. We should all have so much sympathy for their loved ones and for all the students who are undoubtedly traumatized by this ghastly atrocity. It will take quite a while for the university to get back to normal, as much as possible.

Apparently, two current students at Brown have already survived school shootings while in high school! Also, as others noted, it was almost the anniversary of the horrific and utterly sickening Sandy Hook shooting of little children in 2012. I keep saying that this has to stop, but it never does.

Meanwhile, as we mourn the local tragedy on Dec. 13, I understand that in certain circles, empathy is derided as a weakness. Well, as the Beatles once sang, “Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see”.

Resolutions for Others

I’ve given up making New Year’s resolutions myself, but as always, I’m glad to make them for others. Number one this year is for all those who are driving around while smoking marijuana. On almost every walk I have taken recently, and sometimes even while driving with the windows rolled up, I have smelled it coming out of a passing car.

No, the legalization of marijuana did not come with a footnote saying “Sure, get stoned while driving, who cares?” No one cares what the smoker does at home, but becoming a menace on the road is something else. Before we get into the “whatabout” business, of course I am against drinking alcohol and driving too. There’s still a lot of that going on, judging from the beer cans and little nips bottles we see when picking up roadside trash.

I keep picturing a driver smoking and/or drinking while glancing at their phone at the same time. Don’t do it. There seems to be a lot more accidents in the news these days where a car slams into a building. This might explain some of the crazy driving. I didn’t used to be so nervous when going for a walk on our rural roads, but I am now. Of course, not walking a dog any more (sigh) makes it easier to jump out of the way of speeding cars.

Another suggestion I have for a New Year’s resolution is maybe everyone (mostly guys, I am assuming) who has fallen under the spell of sports betting on their phone might want to think about it some more, while they still have some money left. I’m not interested in either sports or gambling, but it seems to me like a sure way to drain your bank account.

The song we associate with New Year’s is “Auld Lang Syne”, that sweetly mournful ballad from a poem in the Scots dialect by Robert Burns. New Year’s always seems like a time for looking back as well as looking forward. But we don’t have to be somber about it.

That master of light verse Ogden Nash shared his thoughts on anticipating the new year by concluding: “Tonight’s December thirty-first, something is about to burst. The clock is crouching, dark and small, like a time bomb in the hall. Hark! It’s midnight, children dear. Duck! Here comes another year.”