Honesty is such a lonely word, everyone is so untrue--songwriter and historian, Billy Joel.
We live in an age of sincere falsehood and earnest fraud and it fucking sucks. Unless critical thinking becomes a trend and the laying down of a hard truth pipeline becomes a part of our social "infrastructure week" (as if Rome itself was ever built in a week, let alone a day), we're all screwed. People doubt one another, they doubt institutions, they doubt science, they doubt politics--they have reasons, but we need to look at the environment not with belief as a signifier of tribal belonging, but with judgment as a tool to actually survive.
The truth isn't always popular, but it's necessary. We can't go on pretending the lead in the water is good, actually, that the dead canary in the mineshaft probably doesn't mean a thing, that the virus isn't that deadly and the vaccine wouldn't have worked anyway. We can't litigate away reality; but once we understand what is true, we can understand what choices make sense and will have better outcomes. Those choices aren't always easy but success doesn't come by way of shortcuts. There isn't a pill for it, just a path made of the right decisions.
Anyway, I just had a satisfying plate of cotecchino and ceci (that's a Philadelphia Italian take on the southern black-eyed peas repast--maybe you could call it a "Hoppin Jawn") and some tasty beer* to get my year started right, and look forward to just telling it as close to how it is and how I see it as I can on the blog for the coming year.
The year can be a good one, but it's on us. It's always on us.
* The other word for this year, for me, will be "moderation". Because I don't have to like it, but it is also true that I need to remember to be moderate in all things.
1 comment:
As Rome itself wasn't built in a week, let alone a day, nor did it fall.
I suppose there's solace in knowing it isn't going to happen tomorrow. I've written a time or two about what an honor it is to live in such interesting times, to witness first-hand in painful slow-motion as history unfolds in real time.
Post a Comment