Maybe this year will be better than the last.

January 5, 2024 9:48 AM

At the onset of the year I like to write an intentional list of intentional things. Dreams and desires. Goals. Milestones. Needs. Changes. I don’t show it to anyone, I don’t post it. It isn’t content, only it is right now as I write this. It’s something only for me. Something I can do to keep my hands on the wheel and to consider the road ahead.
posted by Kitteh (8 comments total)

these are all artists of painful earnestness. Earnestness of different flavors, but all of them heartfelt and built of great passion.

This was lovely, and relatable. Thanks for posting it.
posted by jessamyn at 9:51 AM on January 5 [1 favorite]

And I can know I did only what I could, and sometimes things fall apart. It does not mean everything is broken, it’s just that there are pieces of possibility we need to clean up so we can move on.

I liked this a lot. Thank you.
posted by MonkeyToes at 10:27 AM on January 5 [2 favorites]

Thanks from me, too.

I do want to say that I think it's cringe to think being earnest is cringe. It's okay to have had a bad year, laugh a little slower, talk a little lower, and hope for a better one where you could be forgiven.
posted by ob1quixote at 10:47 AM on January 5 [5 favorites]

Thanks from me, as well. It wasn't the worst year of my life, but it certainly ranks up there. For reasons too personal and mundane to share, I'm pretty certain that this one is going to be better, and I hope the same applies for all who read this.
posted by ivanthenotsoterrible at 12:43 PM on January 5 [1 favorite]

This is so beautiful. Thanks for this, Kitteh.

A Long December might be cringe. In fact, it most certainly is. It is the best part of it.
Earnestness and sincerity are so beautiful.

It is a daunting and terrible task to consider the new year as an opportunity to find some new light in corners that have felt dark for so long.
There's so much (understandable, tbh) toxic positivity around the new year that this piece is a tonic. Nice to know this song is also a fixture of other folks' end-of-year musings.

And gods, despite all existing suggestions to the contrary, please, may this year be better than the last for us all.
posted by smirkette at 7:35 PM on January 5

Well, shit. This is good.

I just had the kind of week that ends with me asking “do I have an executive function disorder or am I just so very burned out at my job” and something in this essay, probably the line about all the things the author hoped and believed back in 1993, is sort of shining a light on the question or this mood in a way that reaches back to an earlier me. Thank you for sharing it.

(Also, I remember hearing this song when it first came on the radio, like I remember the DJ making a big deal out of The New Counting Crows Album. Based on the room I was in, I think it had to be later than 1993 but I don’t hold that against this very good essay.)
posted by gauche at 7:47 PM on January 5

It’s just a damn good song, too. Passes the guitar-around-a-beach-bonfire test with flying colors.
posted by gottabefunky at 11:06 AM on January 6 [1 favorite]

I love this essay. I love the song. All around great--thanks for posting!
posted by kittensyay at 9:28 PM on January 6