Commentary
Another new year prompts us to look up from the daily grind to the yearly one and ask what it’s all about, what beyond surviving the moment we hope to accomplish worth carving onto something more permanent than a Twitter feed. And while everyone who saw COVID and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine coming can foretell 2023’s surprises, the rest of us must either wait until things happen to explain why they were predictable, or else discuss what should happen and how to make it slightly more likely.
I hasten to add that surviving the moment is not itself an unworthy ambition. Without it there’s no long run, just a short fall. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof, and in significant measure the “long run” consists of a series of short sprints. Especially given that Damon Runyon’s “all life is six to five against” appears to have been optimistic….