A New Year

An epistle about the new year is expected to contain something positive, life-affirming or a hope. This text may not meet those expectations.

The plague does not seem to go away anytime soon, so we can expect that 2022 will be more similar to 2020 and 2021 than 2019. I still have tickets for concerts that were supposed to take place in 2020. And being the optimist I am, I have bought more tickets for concerts in 2022. There are travel restrictions between countries, bars and restaurants are closed, theaters are closed and once again it is mandatory to wear a mask on public transport and in shops.

Many believe the pandemic has put life on hold, a bit like Samuel Beckett described it in “waiting for Godot”. The play is, as you may know, about Vladimir and Estragon waiting for Godot while discussing various almost indifferent topics. Here comes a spoiler alert; Godot never shows up. The play is said to be absurd and completely pointless. Just like life in general if you do not fill it with content.

Many people struggle with the Fear Of Missing Out – FOMO – although there is not much to miss at the moment. I’m more of a JOMO person. The Joy Of Missing Out. Not the joy of missing things as such. But the joy of having a lot of time for so much else – and a lot of quality time with myself. Almost no one calls and wonders if we should do something and no one comes by unannounced. If you have a refrigerator, enough drinks and toilet paper, you are pretty much set. I read a lot more than before, think a lot more, write a lot more, and have become less materialistic than before. I was not so preoccupied with goods and gold before either, but now I move mentally further and further out into the wild. I dream of a simpler life where time and days just come and where I can fill them with different content according to inspiration and interests. It has long been a cliché that we run in a hamster wheel to get all the necessities to master everyday life. But now that hamster wheel is very visible to many of us. Do we really want to return to the everyday life that existed before the pandemic? We are now in the third year where conditions are different than before, and I think many have found new routines and joys in this break with the linear predictability we previously had.

2021 is history now so it’s too late to fill that year with content. We can summarize, reflect and learn from what happened, but nothing can be undone. All the people we offended, all we treated well, all we gained, everything we lost, all whom we lost; all that is history now. 2021 is a different country and all the borders are closed now. But don´t be like Vladimir and Estragon who put life on hold while waiting for Godot. The borders of 2022 are open, and you can fill the whole year with content even if the borders of other countries are closed!