The Year In…
On how I cannot resist a year-end list even though I essentially reject the premise.
I love year-end lists. I know that you can’t quantify a year in a series of bullet points. I know that there’s no pithy way to sum up hundreds of days of experience, and that growth doesn’t occur between January 1st and December 31st any more or less than it does between June 12th and June 11th.
And yet.
I like the idea that we intentionally use these somewhat superficial boundaries to reflect and plan and think about what’s happened and what we’d like to happen and how we can help make it happen.
I much prefer reflective lists to predictive lists; trying to predict trends feels a little silly, especially when we aren’t able to agree on them. I’m particularly interested when lists bring out things I’ve noticed in my own life, like this one, that talks about how fashion went backward. I’ve also found that, post-pandemic (back to overstimulation, back to a perceived lack of time) my consumption habits have gone backwards and I’ve found ways to wiggle out of holding myself accountable. Seeing my own bad habits reflected in the broader world does make me feel like a cliche, and it doesn’t let me off the hook, but it does help me conceptualize my own failings in the greater systemic realities that create conditions for them. One of the mantras that I landed on for this year was, “we all deserve better;” while this was primarily in reference to teachers and students in public education, it also resonates for the ways in which large systems are harmful and treat humans and the planet with less dignity than they deserve. So the lists are helpful in that aspect.
I started to make my own year-end lists (which is a part of my kind of sprawling, deeply beloved and quasi-consistent but relatively undefined end-of-year reflective process) to share here, and found that it was a LOT for one post. So I’ll share my lists one a day (though not necessarily every day) between now and New Year’s. I’d love to hear your favorites and love-to-hates and, yes, even predictions for next year based on this year’s lists.
For now: what are your thoughts about lists? Year-end-reflections? Trying to predict trends if you’re not a marketing rep? I’d love to know!
Balance
I’d love to see you on December 28th for my last practice of 2023!
