As we move forward into another new year
Having a plan is important, along with being ready to adjust when the unexpected happens
Note: This New Year's column was written at the start of 2021, with the just-completed COVID year of 2020 still fresh on our minds. While the COVID part is now dated, I believe the overarching message remains relevant.
“New Mornings, New Adventure” was a phrase I used to announce the launch of two newspapers—one preceding the ‘News & Views’ and the other intended as a sister publication.
Neither endeavor proved long lasting; thus, this phrase, while possessing a bold, optimistic tone about what might lie ahead, turned out (in my case) to have a poor track record.
When it comes to commentary, I’ve rarely had an appetite for prediction; possessing little desire to gaze into a crystal ball and give an opinion of what the future might hold. Rather, my habit is to take a slice of history (personal or common), give it a brief explanation, and then compare it to a present-day situation or issue. This is usually done as a cautionary tale, but also as a means to better explain my point-of-view.
Put more succinctly, I use history, or past events, as tool for clarification and persuasion.
As for what’s ahead, I pretty much subscribe to the notion that we need to move forward, step-by-step to whatever destiny awaits. But with the caveat that destiny is not fate; that what unfolds can be impacted and altered by our decisions and actions.
Still, the future for most of us entails getting up in the morning, usually with a plan on what to do that day, and before we know it, we’re back to bed. Having a plan, of course, is a key factor. It helps provide purpose, direction, motivation, and meaning. Not everyone, for all manner of reasons, is able or wishes to greet their days with such determination. Yet even so, whatever their habits or routines, they help make the world go round.
However, stuff happens. Events can control us, and our “best laid plans”….well, you know the rest. When the unforeseen occurs, adjustments need to be made, the new reality dealt with, and another path found.
Given its poor track record, if I in any way invoked the spirit of “New Mornings, New Adventure” in my writings from a year ago as we (individually and collectively) began 2020, my apologies. Certainly, whatever bright prospects seemed to loom up ahead, whatever bold visions beckoned, the visions and prospects were quickly dimmed and tempered by the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic and all of its implications, repercussions, and upheavals.
For many folks, those words—dimmed and tempered—is a mild description of what they went through, the losses they suffered, or the grief they endured. Blindsided, kicked-in-the-teeth, and beaten-and-battered would be more appropriate terms.
The past year presented us with an existential challenge, with so many people (myself included) having to forge different ways of doing things and needing to re-fashion our day-to-day existence.
Yet, even amid the confusion and turmoil caused by this new reality that was suddenly thrust upon us, the underlying essentials that guide us personally and underpin our assorted interactions with each other—our shared moral compass, if you will—did not disappear, although a few of those standards of a civil society may have been abandoned by some or forgotten by others.
All of this, I realize, is a bit vague or, even worse, philosophical sounding.
Concrete signposts are what help navigate the path ahead. So, despite my reluctance to make predictions, I’ll take the experts’ word that the pandemic will still be around a while longer, that many families and businesses will continue to struggle, that the political divide will remain and perhaps deepen, and that our democratic and social norms will be put to the test. I’ll hazard a guess that issues of race, climate change, poverty, educational disparity, automation, immigration, foreign relations, and national security will be discussed and debated.
While none of this would suggest an overly optimistic forecast, I don’t feel a sense of doom-and-gloom. At least not yet. Even when the clouds of despair might darken the horizon, each new morning does give us new possibility, if not necessarily adventure.
People will still fall in love, babies will be born, children will attend school, and work will need to be done. There’ll be friendships to sustain us, churches where we can worship, and stores to purchase goods and services. The sun will rise and set. Spring will come, followed by summer. These, and much more, comprise the signposts of hope.
They, coupled with the dark clouds, are the yin and yang of life and living.
As each of us starts another year, the best advice I can offer is to draw up that list of goals and aspirations—your New Year’s resolutions—but have a contingency plan in your back pocket. If need be, tie a big knot at the end of the rope and hang on, but whenever possible or if practical take your chances and gamble on a better possibility. Finally, whatever unfolds, good or ill, hold onto a purpose that serves as a guiding light.
Today is all we have—to be lived fully and enjoyed as best we can. It brings with it another opportunity to improve our lot, take care of our family, and make our part of the world a better place. It offers as well a few more moments to pause and “smell the roses.” And, while doing so, we likewise anticipate and make plans for tomorrow.
So, let’s hope we can muddle through somehow, if the fates allow, and a year from now we can take stock at the progress made and marvel at the distance traveled as we move forward.
Steve Horton is a mid-Michigan journalist and editor-publisher of the ‘Fowlerville News & Views’—a weekly newspaper beginning its 40th year.