So long, 2022. (I wonder how long it will be before we once again have a year that we aren’t glad to put behind us.)
It was a difficult year personally (though not nearly as bad as for some of our friends in the blogosphere). I grappled with a dark cloud of weariness and depression from which I am only now emerging; it made it almost impossible for me to write or do much else. I do think I’m coming around at last, though, and am beginning to feel more like my old self again. I’m resolved to take up the pen again (though it remains to be seen if I’ll have anything interesting to say).
Anyway, I shan’t grumble – I am richly blessed, and still on the sunny side of the sod! I’m looking forward to a new beginning as the calendar rolls over, and I wish all of you health and happiness and prosperity in the new year.
Back soon.
9 Comments
Good to see you again. We are alive!
Robert
Must be something in the water . . . objectively, 2022 wasn’t bad for my little platoon, but there has nevertheless been a very deep weariness / malaise / what-have-you from which to come around.
Better luck to us all in 2023!
And: don’t give up.
E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle.
Something like that, Jason. Thanks!
BEL: quite right. “…This is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”
And Robert: yes, we are alive!
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/01/jeff-beck-rip.php
I’m glad you have revived and sorry about the weariness and depression. I think you and I are contemporaries and of the same kidney, so I know what it is like when aging and current events gang up on one. I was glad to see the pluck in your answer to Jason, since a man dies without pluck–which I take as a synonym for the Greek thumos; but I also know I’ve reached the age when my own pluck comes and goes. I’m still “bloodied but unbowed,” but my old head sometimes nods from weariness and discouragement. I find that writing helps. I don’t imagine it helps our cause very much, but it helps keep my pluck alive.
It’s not been a good week for rock music. A drummer, guitarist and singer have been lost. A bass player and keyboard player soon? Hope not.
Another one gone:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/singer-songwriter-david-crosby-dead-at-age-81-variety-reports/ar-AA16xrfd?cvid=87c4a8cfc89b4b72b85ce1a847eaf043
I always liked his music no matter what group he was in. Even today I go back and pick out some of his stuff and just remember.
And the keyboardist:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/dean-daughtry-co-founder-of-band-atlanta-rhythm-section-dies-aged-76/ar-AA16NcoZ?cvid=4596010e636b4c8f80fd6ce9c8e0a2af
A bass player is all that remains.