The Wrongologist

Calvin & Hobbes meditating on 2016:

 

 

Personal Note:
The Wrongologist doesn’t like New Year’s resolutions. People should change whenever they feel a need for self-improvement, but few of us carry through, and achieve real change.

The one catalyst for change that works for Wrongo is to ask: “Why am I here?” and “What do I want to do with the time I have left?” These days, the answer is the same as it was in my twenties; to tell people about important things they may have missed, and put them in a context that has meaning to their journey through life.

But like many, the intervening 50 years between Wrongo’s twenties and today were largely spent being accountable to whoever was signing the paychecks. That didn’t leave time to look carefully at the issues that threaten our world, much less talk about them to whoever would listen. So the answer to the annual “Why are you here?” question became rationalizations that had little true meaning.

That’s now in the past.

I am an incredibly fortunate person: I have someone who loves me, I live in an awesome place, and have family and friends who seem to love me for who I am. I don’t have to worry about if I’ll be able to pay the mortgage, or concern myself with other difficulties so many others face.

So, last year, I posted 243 columns about what’s wrong in our country and our world. A few people read all of them, while most read just a few. I’m happy to have found any readers at all.

The objective remains to speak about issues that have a big meaning in the lives of my readers, and to place them in a context that may lead the reader to take political action.

In recognition of the fact that it took Wrongo 40 years to return to his life’s work, here is Bob Dylan and the Band playing “Forever Young”.  Although this song gets most play these days at funerals, Dylan wrote the song as a lullaby for his son, Jesse. In 1973 when he first recorded it, he did a fast and a slow version on the album “Planet Waves”. The song has been covered many times, but here is Dylan and the Band playing it live in the movie, “The Last Waltz” with Robbie Robertson on the guitar solos:

Sadly, this great video does not include the second stanza of the lyric to the song, which is Wrongo’s favorite. So here it is:

May you grow up to be righteous
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you
May you always be courageous
Stand upright and be strong
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young

Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.

Let’s promise each other to stay forever young, to stay open to new ideas and to remain forever hostile to intolerance and greed.

Here’s to 2016, a year in which the Wrongologist blog hopes to make its content as rich, meaningful and enjoyable as possible. That’s my resolution – not just for the Wrongologist blog − but for myself, and for you.

May your 2016 be filled with joy and peace, and may you strive to live your life in as authentic and meaningful way as possible.