Despair isn’t new, and neither are the cold, and the dark, and the depredations of the ruthless during lean times. We defy these things at solstice. We talk about “Christmas cheer,” but this thing we do with the burnt-out stub of the dying year is older than Christmas, and it has always been a light in a dark place.
The experience of tearing away decades of bad design choices is familiar to anyone who owns and old house. Some day, no doubt, a future homeowner will scratch their heads at our renovations. What can I say? 2017 was a weird time.
There’s a campaign to urge second-home owners to register Upstate in the hopes of increasing Democratic turnout. These are dark times, and there is much at stake nationally. But local politics are no less important. And it is ludicrous to suppose that the only way to build a solid platform for better representation in NY-19 is to import voters from more left-leaning areas to drown out the voices of full-time residents.
I must have been nine, maybe ten, when four guys and an accordion destroyed Christmas carols for me forever.
In the spirit of the holiday, and in defiance of the greater narrative, here are a few of the things I’m grateful for this year.
Quitting social media means losing touch with friends and family and missing out on local news, especially in rural areas.
At this time of year, we pay for our shimmering green summers and picture-book snowbound winter days with long stretches of damp and grey and chill.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to go to Washington D.C. and do the tourist thing for a couple of days early in October. I am angry at the government, feel as if those in power are taking actions that are harmful to the general public, to you and me, in favor of those replete with wealth.
He appeared in the Oval Office, seemingly out of nowhere, late one night while the president was pondering handling a heavy matter of state with a tweet. Was he someone who had been hiding out in the little private anteroom behind the bookcase?
If the risks of a constitutional convention are high, so is the prize: real reform of Albany’s notoriously corrupt system.