Coast Chronicles: 2025 — Keep calm and carry on

Published 2:35 pm Thursday, December 26, 2024

What’s old is new again

Another atmospheric river greets us in these days around Christmas — though one day of glorious sun arrived last week, none too soon to break up the gloom. Now we’ll have ten days of rain rain rain. I broke down and purchased a rather large and awkward Happy Light and I sit in front of it first thing in the morning for 30-40 minutes. Does it help? I don’t know. Maybe it’s some kind of placebo. Jackson sits in my lap too so maybe we’ll both be cheerier in the new year.

But, for now, now that we are near crossing over into 2025, what have we learned? What do we want to do differently? What do we intend to start, or finish? I think New Year’s Resolutions may have died a natural death sometime in the last decade. The old clichés of lose weight, exercise more, make more friends (I almost write fiends!) seem somehow to be part of a life that has changed so much we don’t recognize it. So what exactly are we facing in 2025 and how will we do it?

Aging out?

Those of us of a certain age are watching friends grow ill and stumble — some literally. Many of us have been following Fred Carter’s struggles (Vicki keeps us all updated on her Facebook page). Our friends the Pfannenstiels — Tony and Betsy — now basking in the sun of Green Valley are stepping through medical concerns. We wish them love, health, and peace in the new year — qualities we can put on everyone’s wish list.

On the national stage, Nancy Pelosi, who seemed unassailable and sturdy as cedar, has fallen and broken her hip. Bill Clinton is in the hospital with a fever and sepsis. Mitch McConnell isn’t looking too spry. And yesterday it was revealed that House Rep. Kay Granger (Republican, Texas) has actually been residing in a memory care and assisted living facility for the last three months while her staff continued to make it appear that she was still active and doing her job.

This is carrying anti-ageism a bit too far. Let’s call it what it is: decrepitude. These people still clinging to governmental power should step down and allow talented political hopefuls from the ranks of younger folks to step up. It’s way past time. (If only Ruth Bader Ginsburg had acknowledged her mortality, we’d have a different mix in the Supreme Court now.)

Is peace possible?

What else do we wish for in 2025? I certainly hope people around the globe can wrap up the discord, disharmony, and war present all over the world. Will Netanyahu come to his senses and stop his campaign of terror? Can he correct course and actually focus on the hostages who may still be alive and bring them home? And what of Syria? Sudan? Lebanon? Ukraine? What released this apocalypse of killing in 2024? Or have we humans always been so blood thirsty?

Many of my friends keep saying, “Cate, stop reading the news!” But what can I do? I’m curious, concerned, outraged, heartbroken and want to know what’s going on around the planet. At the same time I feel as useless and inadequate to affect change in any of these arenas as in our own country or our own county. Who should run the jail? What can we do to help our many anxious and hard-working immigrant families? How do I begin to reconcile with my own neighbors on the other side of the political divide?

I wonder if any of these questions will or can be answered any time soon. I suppose some answers may arise, since time goes on from moment to moment no matter what. (Unless you’re a quantum physicist who sees spacetime as one grand ever expanding now.)

Other friends have recommended that we just keep our heads down and practice self-care. We all need a rest — this kind of thinking goes. It’s been a rocky ride from at least the Covid-shut-down-years until now. Or as one friend wrote: “Christmas list: 1) give us a frickin’ break.”

Learnings?

Hmmm. In terms of learnings, I have figured out how to program my thermostat. I wonder of that counts? I must admit though that I have been vanquished again by the amount of paper, magazines, post office box detritus, stuff accumulating in my fridge and freezer, and deferred house repairs. My yard has become a refuge for wild animals — lovingly abandoned in the most charming and welcoming ways so that apples, Asian pears, berries, and such are available for all.

I have not made any progress in my war on blackberries, though I still halfheartedly venture out occasionally to trim their runners out of the trees and bushes. Do they sense my waning energy? I think they do. I used to try to suit up appropriately with long-sleeves, long pants, long leather gloves and cutting tools in the quiet of my house so they couldn’t see me coming until it was too late. Still they seem to spread the word once the chopping begins. It’s well known now that, and I quote, “When a plant is damaged, it can ‘pass on danger signals’ to other parts of itself or even nearby plants by releasing chemical compounds that act as warning signals, triggering defense mechanisms like producing noxious substances to deter pests or activating healing pathways in the affected area; essentially, plants communicate danger through a form of chemical signaling.” (Read more about plant communication: tinyurl.com/4vsxe7d2.)

A short prayer

In terms of my personal revelations, this year has been a series of medical challenges and I have surprised even myself by standing firm and stepping up to them with fortitude. Sometimes we don’t always know how we will respond when courage is needed. I have also discovered the real love and loyalty of so many friends and chosen-family members.

It’s easy to say, “I’ve got your back.” But to find one’s self in situations which call for that support and to have it manifest so solidly is to feel renewed in the sense of the good available in the world.

And because I think that when we get right down to it humans are inherently hopeful creatures, mammals that care for others of our species and all creatures of the earth, I say unequivocally, “All the best in 2025! May we all find the strength in ourselves to do better in this new year, to do more to help others, to be more responsive to inevitable change, to speak our truth with courage, to let bygones be bygones, and to make both the world close around us and the greater world a better place in which to live.”