2025 Begins

I am writing this on the morning of January 1st. I spent some time over the past few days thinking about the wild ride that was 2024. I decided to keep most of those reflections to myself, but I wanted to send out a brief note to let you know I’m entering the new year with something approaching optimism.

My biggest takeaway is that 2024, for me, was a year of transition. A full year of “not working,” in the sense that I was unemployed after getting laid off in late 2023, but also a year of doing the work of deep introspection, asking myself difficult questions, going to therapy, making choices about my future. It was not an easy journey, but I’m coming away from it with a sense of clarity and direction.

The state of the world is incredibly bleak. Do I really need to list the reasons why? A livestreamed genocide. The global rise of fascism. Climate catastrophes. The scapegoating of trans people. The collapse of our media institutions. Growth capitalism making everything unsustainable. The enshittification of our digital ecosystems. AI slop unleashed. What does it mean to be an optimist when faced with this onslaught of bad news?

Those of us who see clearly the threats and the overwhelming systemic problems we face are often called pessimists. And a common retort is that we reject the optimist/pessimist binary, preferring to identify as “realists.” But I think I want to go further and also reject the realist/dreamer binary.

We can see things clearly, understand the gravity of the situation and the magnitude of the challenges before us, and still have hope that things can get better. Nothing is preordained. Nothing is inevitable. And even if the world is likely to continue sliding into darkness, it’s our responsibility to believe that a better world is possible.

We have to be realists and dreamers.

That’s the energy I’m trying to bring into the new year. I hope you will join me.

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