New Year’s Day, 2025, a fresh day, year and start.
Winter is necessary for Spring, the time of Renewal.
I have posted nothing since November, 2022. I’ll go into more detail at a later date. However, like many of you, I have experienced stress and anxiety, with a resulting loss of optimism and motivation. But it is a fresh year and a fresh start.
Over the past two years, I’ve had plenty of time to re-evaluate the topics and tone of my earlier posts. I need to be more authentic in the way I express my thoughts. To do this I intend to:
- Ignore the news cycle and follow themes that are rewarding to me and, hopefully you. The 24×7 news cycle monetizes everything. The result is a narrow focus on what the media deems important, even when not. This generates shallow biased reporting and de-facto censorship to appease advertisers and powerful groups.
- Concentrate on ideas that are constructive and thought provoking. They can be unfamiliar and challenging. Fresh-air for our traumatized, cobwebbed minds. New ideas for a new era. For instance, how can all of us be free while successfully meeting our collective responsibilities and solving our shared problems?
- Focus on a more positive outlook. There is no need for name calling or stirring the pot. I will respectfully pose seldom discussed ideas. You can assume that these concepts will challenge long-held views and values.
- Provide researched analysis and thoughtful commentary. Which I hope will pull all of us closer together rather than turn us against each other. There is much more that binds us than divides.
- Offer an opportunity for personal growth for me and you. Perspective is the key.
We live at an amazing time when both mind numbing fear and heroic courage are choices we have to make. In Frank Herbert’s Dune book series, a powerful religious organization called the Bene Gesserit had the Litany Against Fear. It went like this:
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
While we live in perilous times, there remains beauty and magic from which we can draw Inspiration and Motivation. We are not powerless.
So welcome to 2025. We have paid for our tickets, might as well take the ride.
This content written and illustrated by Les Phillips is licensed under a Creative Commons CC0 Universal Public Domain Dedication license. Assisted by Perplexity AI (research) and Night Cafe Studio (illustration)