2022 – The Year of Life, The Universe, And Everything

I turn 42 in 2022.

Regular readers of this blog space may notice how much time I spend talking popular culture, and yet I never reference literature outside of comic books. That’s because since high school, I’ve struggled to read fiction. I don’t know what happened. I read avidly in elementary school, and tried for years to get into the novel series my friends recommended. Sadly, when I tried to read prose, I usually found my mind wandering even as my eyes kept reading. I’d restart pages that I remembered enough to feel like the book repeated itself, but not enough to follow the story without rereading them.

One of the only authors I could still read without issue was Douglas Adams. All that to say, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy holds a special place in my heart. And not just the first one. All five books in The Hitchhiker’s Guide trilogy speak to me and my sense of humour. It’s a classic chicken and the egg scenario, whether the books defined what I find funny, or if I find them funny because of my predefined sense of humour.

With 2022 being the year I reach the answer to the greatest question in life, the universe, and everything, surely I have an epic resolution in mind.

New Year, Same Resolution

Starting in 2015, instead of setting a specific goal, I’ve given the year a theme and tried to live up to it. 2015 was the year of trying new things. 2020, I blogged about my three tiered resolution. Thematically, I presented them differently. Effectively, however, they and the resolutions between them shared a lot in common.

The overlapping goals included:

Be Happy

I’ve lived a generally happy life. I hit a rut in the 2010s where I felt on the wrong path and woke up annoyed most mornings. That changed in 2014, when I quit the teaching job that drained the life out of me and got into creative work at Blind Ferret.

So even though I’ve been happy these past 7 years, the years before it taught me how fragile happiness can be and not to take it for granted. As long as I identify and deal with anything in my life making me unhappy, success!

Make Others Happy

I’m not the only person in my life. When I see the opportunity to make life easier for someone else, I aim to take it. The closer I am to the someone, the more I try to make them happy.

Try New Things

My New Year’s Theme came out of fear. I became a father in 2015. The combination of fatherhood and hitting my mid-30s, I wanted to make sure I didn’t fall into the slump I’ve seen a lot of friends fall in. I may have tried more new things that year (2015, you’ll recall, was the year of trying new things), but I make an effort to try new music, media, and experiences outside of my comfort zone. This is how I ended up emphasizing watching the media my friends tell me I HAVE to watch. For the most part, they’re right.

Do The Things You Say You Love

This was one of the weirder things I discovered about adulthood. You could think of herself as being in a certain hobby, and then it can dawn on you that you haven’t done anything related to that hobby in years. So this year I’ve already painted some custom action figures, and tried a couple of new (to me) video games. I’ll probably talk about them in a future blog.

Don’t Panic

Of all the immortal words Douglas Adams left us with, whether you’re turning 42 this year or not, I recommend you Don’t Panic.

Not in a “have you tried not being depressed” kind of way, of course.