2014 started as a great year. Flew to Birmingham, saw the bowl game, partied hard with the Vanderbilt faithful, saw a bowl win, flew home in triumph with Aloe Blacc echoing from my headphones as I swaggered down the concourse. That was January 5 and everything looks like it was coming up perfect.
The next day, it all went to hell.
On a personal scale, it was plenty bad. Terrible health for loved ones. Jobs applied for and not gotten. My own health issues. Vanderbilt loses a coach and staff so Penn State can get right, and his replacement is godawful and returns Commodore football to its usual place in the world. And then the wider world: Russia getting horrible again, Ebola breaking out, an American public and politics that gets ever more stupid by the year…there seems to be a consensus that across the board, 2014 was a dismal and disastrous year that we’ll all be better off to see the back of.
I had hopes that 2014 would be a comeback from the awfulness of 2013. Instead, in so many ways, it just got worse. It’s not a sustainable trend. This year, the good things I wrote down to remember were pretty much the only good things to remember.
There are signs that next year could get better. There are finally changes coming at work. My distant relations (well, the most trying one) are improving their behavior. We did get a national championship in baseball for Vandy and another world championship for the Giants locally. The Warriors are good, the Dores are better than expected, my new iPhone is working well, I’m on a train to Los Angeles for the Rose Parade and Disneyland…
So resolutions: same as ever. Hard shutdown on Tuesday nights. Not so much with the soda, or the snack machines, or the fast food. Exercise more. Ride my new bike for recreation. Try to see the good. Worry less about existential things and the wider world. Make an effort to do more with friends and socialize with other people. And since giving up on the NFL worked so well, take a long look at whether college football needs the same treatment. The things you love don’t every time love you back, and when they don’t, you have to consider how healthy that relationship is.
And if possible, make this the year I actually play the piano and follow soccer. Because those could be fun.