letter - dear you, 2022

Dear You,

It’s officially 2022. A new year. The sun is shining, almost gloating. 

Who isn’t still in recovery mode from the whiplash of the past two years—a global pandemic, protests and riots, insurrections and coups—all while internet-meme culture raves on and unimaginably rich megalomaniacs maybe touch the edge of space? 

Across social media, AI algorithms continue to reward ever more over-the-top sensational-triggering clickbait trails that isolate and insulate like-minded people. Facebook rebranded as the Metaverse: what could be a more fitting name than “met, averse?” Then beloved Betty White passes away just days before her centenarian birthday. 

We are all trepidatiously peering at what this year may hold. 

Do we even dare to make resolutions anymore? What does it matter, and what’s the point when the planet itself will likely not survive the hubris of one irresponsible species: namely, us? If cynicism takes us down the drain with the rest of the polluted fresh water, we are assured by current systemic hierarchies that we won’t be recycled. 

We look back and reflect. We look forward and project our hopes, dreams, desires—and our fears, our guilt, and all the rest of the emotional gamut of this Existential Crisis. We look at what got us here, but we’re so conditioned by linear thinking that we’re very much stuck in a rut. Or at least a handbasket heading to Hell. 

But we’re woke now. Right? We know practice doesn’t make perfect; we even know perfect practice doesn’t make perfect. We sort of get it, what Vince Lombardi said, “practice makes permanence.” Habits remain strong simply because they have been practiced the most, e.g. I am still aimlessly scrolling, despite knowing better, and fully realizing the irony as the compulsion urges me ever on to one more post.

But it’s not just about looking back and looking forward. The past is as unreachable as the future irresistible. Look back/look forward; this linear model is no longer serving us. We need to look around, on every level—from the physical and material to the verbal, emotional, economic, social, and political spheres. We need integrity, to integrate everyone and everything. 

Let’s observe that “recycle” is redundant for “cycle.” 

Practice makes permanence. Circle that.

It’s still glowing, the shining sun. It’s new, 2022. And I wish you, dear, a blessed one.

Love,

M