by Don Hall

Merriam-Webster went with “authentic” and Oxford University Press named “rizz,” a riff on charisma.

Neither of these words seem to sum up the year.

The word that describes my year is "reclamation." At first I thought it was "reinvention" as I tasked myself with getting back into a headspace not so battered and wounded by the divorce from the prostitute but as I closed the book on 2023 I realized I wasn't reinventing myself so much as I was reclaiming the person I was before choosing two women to partner with over the past thirteen years whom I had to win over and who neither had much respect for me.

That takes a toll on anyone and I remember liking who I was before Dana and then before Alice. I'm taking back Christmas, my birthday, my sense of place, responsibility, and perspective. Hopefully, with a bit more wisdom and humility but going back nonetheless. I want that swagger back. That optimism for not only my future but the future.

That's the word for myself but what is the word that sums up this year?

“Uncertainty.”

Will Trump get convicted? Will the SCOTUS vindicate him? Will he somehow be elected again? Is AI a boon, a danger, or a disrupter? The hottest year on record, does this mean we’re doomed in five years to live underground like Morlocks? Is crime really worse or is it just videotapes of crime that have risen? Why do we still call it ‘videotape’? Are kids being indoctrinated by drag queens or is anti-gay rhetoric ramping up because of a push by the transgender activists? Will the massive ‘fuck you, guys’ move to transport immigrants to sanctuary cities that easily ignored the bitching from down south discourage immigration? Will the multiple wars end or will the massacre of everyone in the Ukraine, Sudan, Gaza, and Myanmar continue like the mass shootings in the US? Will the MCU ever find its way? What are the pronouns of someone you just met if you can’t determine them by what they appear to be? Are words really violence? Is gentle parenting the single worst idea in history? Are we all mentally ill or is the expansive embrace of that state become such a cool new trend that soon everyone will have a therapist instead of friends to talk to?

Lots of uncertainty and, as is typical, uncertain people tend to get anxious and pissy.

We have become so overwhelmed by uncertainty, so incapacitated by our moral relativism, that we’ve become incapable of distinguishing between right and wrong, or defending our values. Or forgetting what those values were in the first place.