I think it's fair to say that the world has had a collective aneurism. In 2019, which was so bad I couldn't bring myself to post the annual 'Notes', we yelled and spat at each other, threw up walls and fur balls, voted for the venal and the bordering on fascist, forgot history and the capacity for reasoned debate. Maybe it was just as well in 2020 that we locked ourselves down for a while ... and so as we emerge from our splendid isolation, freshly vaccinated, I offer these notes to myself for the New Year:
- Be European, no matter what the Brexit legislation says;
- Ignore all cries of 'Pollyanna' ... optimism is a political act (so says Angela Davis so it must be true);
- Do not feel bad when DuoLingo or any other artificial life form tells you you're being relegated a level; it's not real!
- Join riotous assemblies and chorus lines, and remember that even when someone in the chorus line is being a total numpty, singing out of tune, stepping on your toes, collectively that line will 'propel transformation, incubate possibility, and sustain dreams of the otherwise' (Saidiya Hartman);
- Don't forget to dance, even if it's still in the kitchen for just a few more months.
