For me, yes. I have my health (I weighed in this morning at 148.7 lbs), I have Jadyne (weight not a consideration, and don’t count the word “have” as misogynistic. I don’t “have” her. Actually she has herself), and to quote a friend, this morning “I woke up!” Hoping to keep doing that in 2024. I’m hoping to swim a hundred miles this year.
It isn’t an exciting New Year’s Eve. It never is for us. Steve Rubenstein, a former writer for the SF Chronicle, once compared it to watching the numbers turn over on an odometer. And speaking of that, we do have a new odometer, one that hasn’t hit 100 miles yet. After Jennifer was t-boned we sold her and Andrew “Sparky,” our beloved Tesla 3, then bought a new one for ourselves.
I had cataract surgery last February and now have 20-20 vision, but need glasses to read. I have my family. Three kids, two spouses, six grandchildren, all well, healthy, and thriving. The garden thrives. Stuff that I’ve planted is still alive. The Helleborus is blooming. The rains of 2023 have filled our reservoirs. No more saving shower water. A wonderful trip to Turkey last spring. The healthy economy has preserved much of our savings. Joy that the lives of our friends and family brings us. The gratitude we have that we are with them at this time and at this place.
If all that is so good what could possibly be bad? The virus that is MAGA, challenges in the health of close friends, the continuous difficulties facing our clients at Dorothy Day, an 18 month presence of a port-o-let outside our driveway. Its absence over Christmas was a gift.
Democracy is on the table in 2024. Never have Americans faced the very real prospect that a Trump victory will end the democratic experiment we’ve been enjoying, say, for the last 248 years. Fascism and ignorance is on our doorstep. That’s what’s bad. The writing is on the wall. I just can’t read it. Yet. Even with 20-20 vision.