Greetings, everyone! Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukkah.
In no particular order, here’s what we need to see in 2023.
Definitely need to see the end to cancel culture, which I’ve written about before. It took a big hit in 2022, and here’s to it fading fast into the sunset in 2023.
Wouldn’t it be great to see the Carolina Panthers have a winning 2023-2024 season? I don’t watch much football anymore, but it sure as heck would be a nice surprise for the home team to give themselves and their fans something to brag about for a change.
Ideally, we’ll see no more coronavirus cases and no more RSV cases in 2023. But because that’s highly unlikely, only very mild cases so people can hopefully recover quickly and get back to their daily routines and enjoy their time with family.
I’d like to see less arguing over top of one another and more listening and thoughtfully engaging with family, friends, neighbors, online buddies, etc. It’s good to be passionate about the things we care about, but we also need to be willing to listen more. In the process, maybe we’ll learn more, too.
Relatedly, there should be much fewer knee-jerk reactions in the new year. Social media has really brought out the worst in people by making it super-easy to react first to big news well before they know all the facts. This includes judgmental reactions that oftentimes need to be (or should be, but often aren’t) walked back later once we know more as to the particulars of the situation.
Is it too much to ask that we have some milder seasons? After the bitterly cold weather much of the country saw over the Christmas holiday, it’d be wonderful if we could go into the new year with a milder rest of the winter, and a summer that feels more like springtime. Also, no hurricanes or tornadoes, please. Or none that make landfall, anyway.
Politically speaking, maybe the GOP can finally get it together in 2023 with less infighting and more eye-on-the-ball stuff like understanding the common goal is to make Joe Biden a one-term president, with the best way to do being to put on a united front.
It’d be awesome if animal adoptions went up in 2023. It’s been often said that humans don’t deserve dogs and cats, but we need more love and attention bestowed on fur babies in the coming year.
Mom and I are considering it, and in fact, once she’s done with her chemo treatments, the plan is to bring a new fur baby into the Matthews family fold.
And speaking of that, my family would love nothing more than to have mom’s chemo treatments, which start in January, to go well with no bad side effects. We’re praying that by springtime when she’s scheduled to come off of them that they will have been successful in making her cancer-free.
There is no greater gift that can be given to a family than to know that their loved ones are out of harm’s way, and that’s what we want more than anything in 2023.
Here’s to a safe, healthy, and prosperous new year for everyone. Let’s make it a good one by collectively putting our best foot forward, and stopping to smell the roses every once in a while!
North Carolina native Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym Sister Toldjah and is a media analyst and regular contributor to RedState and Legal Insurrection.