Went to see John Oliver tonight. He was GREAT! He really drove home the point of understanding history, not so you can feel great about your country, but so you can understand why some things are they way they are, to learn from them, and to make better choices going forward. See also, for the love of all that is holy, can people who are NOT experts stop thinking they ARE on everything? It’s like I always say, getting a C in high school biology and watching a few YouTube videos do not mean you know more than the hive of PhDs and MDs who devote their careers to understanding something.
But the U.S. is just chock full of people who embody the Dunning-Kruger effect, and it is our undoing.
This leads me to my resolutions for 2025.
Ignore the ignorant. Whether it’s mansplainers who want to tell me about things I’ve covered extensively as a medical journalist as though they are imparting new knowledge, dudebros online who think women can “hold in” their periods, conspiracy theorists, anti-vaxxers, omnivores who ask where I get my protein, people who natter on about critical race theory but when you ask them what it is they cannot tell you, cryptoboys, Musk bronies and other bootlickers of billionaires, or D.C. political pontificators, they’re getting muted, restricted, blocked, walked away from, and otherwise banished from my sphere without warning or response.
I’ve already started doing this in that I removed from my friends list a particularly annoying acquaintance who tried to lecture me on how Virginia “has been Blue for over 40 years” when discussing the last presidential election. Uh, yeah, with the exception of 1964, Virginia was Red from 1952 until 2008, when the Commonwealth went Blue for Barack Obama. 2024 – 2008 = 16, not 40. It wasn’t the first time he tried to mansplain something he was wrong about to me, and I just don’t have time for that kind of nonsense.
Work on my fitness. The exercise part will be easy enough. I happen to like exercise and tracking exercise in my planner. I liked last year’s planner so much, I got a similar one by the same company this year.
It’s the nutrition part that will require discipline. Fortunately, I have roughly eleventy billion empty journals and pretty notebooks of all different sizes. The only thing that has ever worked for me is to use measuring cups and spoons and write down everything I put into my maw. Otherwise, I’ll blow it on pasta, cereal, nuts, beans, and spreads. Some stuff, I just cannot eyeball.
Resume my tarot practice. Again. I really fell off of that last year. I do love it, though. It helps me think things through and I love the cards themselves. They’re little works of art you can hold in your hand. Plus, I’m fairly good at it. My brain loves to find patterns.
Write some prose other than articles, blogs, and journal entries. I’m thinking maybe creative nonfiction, timed fiction, flash fiction, personal essays, or even some short stories. I may end up doing it on long weekends or staycations, but so be it. Whether I share it publicly is another story.
Renew my travel resolution. Again. Back in 2020, I set a few rules for myself. First, I had to travel at least three times a year. Second, one of those places had to be somewhere I’d never been before. Third, one of those places could not be for work. Fourth, Baltimore is too close to count as travel. Unfortunately the pandemic and then the heart attack kept me from sticking to this, but I WILL do it this year, so help me.
And that’s a wrap for Holidailies, kids! Hang onto your hats like Frosty here, because I sense 2025 is going to be a wild and windy one! Oh, and if you’re reading on WordPress, please do subscribe. I bombed the November writing project because I had to travel for work, but I think 2025 is going to provide a good bit of blog fodder. Stick around!
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