I’m delighted to bid farewell to 2021. Our family had a particularly bad end of the year. The darkest moment was the passing of our granddaughter, Claire Elizabeth.
As much as I want 2022 to be better, I said the same thing in 2021 and it turned out to be much worse that 2020, so I’m not going to hold my breath.
At heart, though, I’m an optimist shading toward realist. I’m hopeful, but acutely aware that there are no promises.
Christmas brought new hope. So did the New Year. On that day, I wore my new (last year) Star Trek socks and drank cocoa from my new Star Trek mug. I grew up on TOS (Star Trek The Original Series). Then came The Next Generation (TNG – please keep up), Voyager, and Enterprise. I enjoyed both Picard and Discovery. Star Trek has always looked at the brighter side of the universe and was ground-breaking in how it addressed social issues without annoying, overt, virtue-signaling.
Phenomenal authors wrote Star Trek episodes. People like Gene Roddenberry, Gene Coon, Ron Moore, D.C. Fontana, Harlan Ellison, David Gerrold, and Theodore Sturgeon.
I was never a huge fan of DS9 (you’re on your own), but somehow both a Ferengi and gold-pressed latinum have found their way into Book 2. Early movies were great. I even like the new cast. Admittedly, I’d be happy with more plot in the movies, but that seems to be the way of most franchise movies as they age. They run out of ideas and compensate by blowing up more stuff.
For motivation, I’ve joined three critique groups and am already seeing enough benefit to counteract the annoyance that they have built in to their DNA.
Let’s all hope for a better 2022 but keep Will’s mindset. The glass is neither half-full nor half-empty. It’s always full: ½ air, ½ water.
