Happy 2023, everybody.
Thanks to my talented friend Janet Burroff for the 2023 New Year’s artwork. Janet has been providing PatriotRetort.com with artwork every New Year’s Day since 2017. I really like this year’s offering. I think the jackdaw with its wings unfurled is an especially nice touch.
Janet will probably email me later to tell me that’s not a jackdaw. But to the Celts, the jackdaw is a symbol of transformation and new beginnings, so you can see why I think it’s a jackdaw.
I considered making a few predictions of what I think is in store for 2023 but decided against it. I’m no Amazing Kreskin. The truth is, I have no idea what’s in store for us this year.
Last year was rather exhausting if you want my opinion.
The war in Ukraine. The death of Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Gas prices reaching record highs of over $5 a gallon. A baby formula shortage. Republicans snatching defeat from the jaws of victory as the Red Wave failed to materialize. Grocery costs alone made me batty. I told my Dad last week that I miss the good old days of two years ago when I spent less than $50 a week on groceries.
Elon Musk purchasing Twitter and then giving us all a peek behind the curtain certainly wasn’t on my 2022 Bingo card. Deus ex machina is usually the stuff of myths. But in 2022, we had a Muskus ex machina, and nobody saw it coming.
I have no idea what to expect from 2023. And part of me doesn’t want to know, especially considering the only thing I do know is that I’m turning sixty.
Suddenly I am gripped by an overwhelming desire to go back to bed, and I don’t think it’s the post-injection dozy.
Of course, there are some other things we know will happen. Over the next six months, Republican politicians will start lining up to announce they are running for president in 2024. And depending on if Grandpa Biden sits this one out, Democrat politicians might be doing the same.
If history is any indication, we shouldn’t see official announcements for another few months. Then again, in the 2020 Democrat primary, several eager beavers officially announced their campaigns in January 2019 – most notably Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren.
Whenever it begins, by June of 2023 at the latest, the presidential election season will already be in full swing. More’s the pity.
If I learned anything from 2022, it’s that you never know what the hell the new year is going to bring. So we may as well buckle up and enjoy the ride.
And if you want my advice, keep a hearty sense of humor. Something tells me we’ll need that as much in 2023 as we did last year.
Update
According to Janet, it’s a magpie not a jackdaw. Ah, well. I was close!
