Goodbye, '23

Bye, ‘23. You left us with a lot of surprises, not all of them good ones.

You left us with the sour taste of war.

You left us half blindfolded and with the scary darkness of many unknowns.

And we are still looking for answers.

We are enormously divided on any issue we can think of. Especially in the USA.

Politically, a new episode of the Trump saga is upon us. That, in and of itself, is scary, but not for the obvious reasons; it's more for the fact that either way we go, electorally speaking, the old wounds of our recent past will resurface. That's a given, unfortunately.

It seems like the most powerful country on Earth can't find its moral compass, much less the spiritual one.

Americans are at a boiling point each and every day. Nowadays, people are still determining where the next drama will emerge, so preventing it is impossible. Violence is reactionary at the slightest provocation, as folks are in constant vigilance, ready for anything. They don't try to avoid it; on the contrary, they welcome it.

“Bring it on!” has become the most common reaction to any given conflict. Manners and reasoning seem to be absent without a leave. It's the same with critical thinking. Gone.

To them, those virtues are a sign of weakness and resignation. Many Americans have turned to brutes and are proud of it.

The divisions in society are as deep as they are disturbing, and instead of progressing, we are digging our own graves in the process of digressing.

Yes, ‘23 was a symptom, not a cause, but it's leaving us without ideas or solutions. It almost feels like it's relieved to know it's finally over. It feels like it’s saying, “It's your mess; you deal with it.”

If we could just go to the root of the problem, we may be able to figure out the solution.

Amicably, but when old friends or close family members have cut ties with each other for good, that's a sign of worse to come and impending doom.

So, bye '23. Sorry for all the trouble that we caused. You're probably wondering if we would ever learn.

We've been here before. We're just repeating history.

If we could sit at the table like the rest of us used to do, like sensible adults, and discuss our issues through dialogue, we might very well transcend our differences better than with a gun.

But we are in pain. A suffocating, desperate, agonizing pain. We hurt so much inside that we lash out at the slightest provocation. When did such an action solve a problem?

Most people would agree that such a kind of pain is worse than the other, the physical kind.

Psychological pain wounds and scars run deep and don't heal nearly as quickly or as easily.

And ‘23 says goodbye, 1,000 years older than when it was first born, barely 12 months ago.

We beat it into submission; we ganged up on it. We blamed and cursed it like a horrible toothache without realizing we were the nerve causing the pain in the first place.

If we don't like repeating the same, we must behave differently. We’d have to let go of the hatred consuming the haters. Most importantly, whatever we do, let's not let them take us down their rotting hole and suffer the same fate.

If they choose to live in a hell of their own making, it's not our duty to try to stop them.

So, bye-bye, ‘23. I knew you when you were a baby, and vividly remember wishing you well.

It seems like typical human nature. We wish, pray, and hope the new year will bring auspice, progress, evolution, and if not, a new beginning. It also seems true that it only takes a few days for our hopes to be crushed, as easily as they were envisioning something better, sweeter, or more plausible.

And every New Year, we say the same thing. This time will be different. We’ll make sure of it. 

And then we have the resolutions. How long do they last for the majority of people? 5 days, 50 days? Somewhere in between? But yes, we fail every time.

Yet, we never seem to ask why?. Is it our fault because lack of discipline on our part, or is it someone else’s? 

Maybe this time around we won’t repeat the same mistakes we told ourselves we wouldn’t last year. Maybe this time we are wiser because we learned what NOT to do.

We could use that experience to our benefit. Why not? It has to be done at some point. What other chance do we have?

None.

This is it.

Everybody knows we are licking the edge of the precipice. We might not have another chance if we fail again.

The world is getting more dangerous by the day. We might not survive much longer unless we stop the maniacs who are in charge from continuing with their nefarious plan. 

I don’t know anyone who has started a war, do you?

If we look carefully, we’ll see that the same people are at the helm of the problems. It’s always the same tactics and the same game. So a country did this; therefore, we’ll do that. Tick for tack.

We are a democracy, and many depend on us for their freedoms and democracy. “We can’t let them down,” you may hear them saying.

They use the same propaganda, the same channels, the same bought-and-paid-for "journalism" and the same old lies. 

Since we don’t know any better, exhausted from a long day at work and families to protect and sustain, we can’t be blamed. 

The warmongers know this, and they bank on it not changing anytime soon. If dissent starts to poke its head, it'll undoubtedly bring forth a major distraction that will preoccupy you again. And again.

The Western attention span is quite shallow, so their work is cut out for them.

It’s not easy for people to change how they think quickly. That’s not how it works—fortunately for them, unluckily for us.

We stick to our confirmation biases, like the bread that we eat daily. Or our culinary choice of the day. What’s important is that they know this and use it to their own advantage.

Once a person has made up their mind, it’s a huge mountain climb to turn them back and allow a new truism to revoke what they held as belief for so long in their subconscious. We hold on to an idea like an irrefutable truth once such an idea is formed. From that point on, we reinforce it with the likes of people we admire and/or follow. It gives us a sense of significance. A sense of intelligence. 

That’s a big problem with no easy solution, as people need to be open to fresh ideas, even if they go against the grain. 

It’s most difficult for them to do. It’s like staring over. Learn everything again anew. 

And that requires humility, time, and reasoning. Even if it makes you feel sick inside,

At this stage, we have no choice but to change if we want to survive, both individually and collectively. 

This time, it is for real. 

This coming year is it.

So, yes, goodbye, ‘23, for the lessons you’ve shown us. 

And there were many.

I'm sure your successor will take the reins for a better dawn, a change that will be so magnificent it will leave the naysayers and skeptics with the notion that there could be a better world if we all worked together for the common good.

We haven't learned that lesson yet. But, all in all, remember...

It wasn't your fault, but thank you for being the precursor.

History will remember you well.