In Which An Old Guy Says Get Off My Lawn
by Jeff Baker
Another year, another bracketed space of time slips into history. 2025, wow. 2026, again, wow.
It doesn’t feel like that long ago that we were awaiting the arrival of the year 2000. Remember the squabbles over exactly what year began the Twenty-First Century? It seems amazing that a nice chunk of the populace have never known anything but years when they would begin writing a date with “20.” People to whom the phrase “The Year Two-Thousand” connotates antiquity, not “the Future” and all its possible wonders. People to whom paper maps are as out-of-date as the concept of paying extra for a long-distance call.
Things have changed, not always for the better. Our society seems coarser now. Old slurs are re-entering our national discourse. Maybe we can blame the mass-communication power of the internet for some of this but at the same time more facts are available sent winging their way to our various devices. Good and bad. Protests have been organized via the ‘net, and falsehoods about them have been spread the same way.
And don’t get me started on A.I.
But people’s generosity is still there, also amplified by online communications.
A Gay Bar in town held a “Friendsgiving” this past Thanksgiving for people who had nowhere to go for the holiday. Folks donated money and supplies to food banks and other helpful organizations during the recent shutdowns and cuts in benefits. And there have been countless other acts of kindness.
As tough as this life may be the trick is to keep plodding on, follow the star, keep to your dreams, keep an eye out for what is wrong and work for change even if it’s only just a little bit.
Little things add up.
So I will close by wishing my readers the best for the holiday season and a happy new year.
Jeff Baker blogs about reading and writing sci-fi, fantasy and horror on or around the thirteenth of each month. He still uses” connotates” instead of the more current “connotes.” Jeff posts fiction at authorjeffbaker.com, https://authorjeffbaker.com/ and can be reached on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ on Blue Sky https://bsky.app/profile/jeffbakerauthor.bsky.social and on Mastodon (as “Mike Mayak) https://mastodon.otherworldsink.com/home