Start!

It's easy to get overwhelmed in all of it. Scorched rainforest. Scrawny polar bears. Florida's rising sea levels. The corrupt, bat-shit crazy President. Fox News. Brexit. Plastic in the oceans. The decline of the freshwater mussel. More news sources. Surveillance Capitalism. Rising suicide rates. More anxiety in young children. Gun violence.

On December 3, my friend Laura dived into the sea in Cornwall. On that day, it was -2 degrees centigrade where I live. The sea was fresh, clear, blue. And freezing. But this seems to be the correct response to all of the mental garbage. Cold, fresh, saltwater. Immerse yourself in it.

Simplification is perhaps the antidote. Pare down everything. Marie Condo your whole life.

Somehow the end of the decade has crept up on me. Did you see it coming? I made a 2020 playlist this morning and realized that some of my favorite songs are nearly fifty years old: Bowie, Velvet Underground, Talking Heads. How?

So, here we are on the eve of a new decade; a time to take stock, to reevaluate, to cut away the calcified crud, to spring clean one's life. To make, perhaps, decisions to change.

If you ever needed a sign to start something new, this is it. Right here and now.