The only New Year’s Resolution you need for 2023

What a year 2022 was. And I thought Covid years were crazy. What an emotional rollercoaster did we just live through!? I mean at one point I thought we lost the whole damn country to the Chinese, but then judging by Christmas and NY festivities in Colombo, it seemed like we had collectively won the lottery. How did we go from staying in a petrol queue for a whole week to living the same life we always did—just with the lucky SOB from 5th Lane as President?

I have thought long and hard about this. (well, maybe not that long or too hard). I was spared the worst of it — partly due to my own undeniable brilliance, but mainly due to the comfortable safety net my parents had built for me. And while it may seem like we are at the tail-end of whatever hell-hole we were in at one point, a little caution before we pop that next bottle of champaign may be in good order.

So here’s what I think, and what I think we should do;

What is this?

First of all, nothing has really changed since the days of petrol queues. QR codes have helped, but ppl can’t afford to keep spending so much on fuel so demand is down—as it is for most other goods we would otherwise be queuing for. And the combination of import restrictions and the fact that we aren’t really paying back any loans or interests payments anymore means we have more $$s in the kitty to buy what we need.

But what about those outstanding loans? These won’t just go away. Creditors the world over are already circling ahead like vultures eyeing a rotting carcass. And whether or not the elusive IMF funds ever come in, any cash injection to a broken system is like a bandage on a botched amputation. But clearly this was not the time to think about all that. Our relatives and friends are down from overseas and everyone is caught up in festive fever. Don’t we still need that big blowout after being holed up in our houses for so long? (remember Covid?). And besides, these overseas types have brought in dollars, so shouldn’t we be rolling out red carpets?

But nothing has really changed. All of the problems we had before the first jingles jangled are still there—and probably festered now. As with most great New Year’s Eve parties, the hangover next day is always worse. Miracles might happen of course, but it’s best to live not expecting them to.

So what should we do?

Shit. I don’t know. Why did I even think I can give an answer to this!? No one can possibly be consistently right about what’s going to happen. Much of it’s up to chance, and shifting social and economic values across vast swaths of diverse populations (not to mention what mother nature has in store for any of us) is just too impractical to predict.

But what I do know is that if there’s anything you can change (with unfettered access) is yourself. You simply can’t stop evolving and expect the world to stop with you. Just as you cannot deny a future, you cannot deny the need to change in accordance with it.

And lasting change will only come from Empathy. When you have empathy, you cannot war with each other because of a realization that we are all fighting our own battles. If you eliminate hate from society, the result is us working together to find solutions to the problems we face as a nation. It all starts with Empathy.

Empathy makes us look forward, while letting go of old ideas and tired fables we use to judge others without improving ourselves. We live in a world which is more polarised than ever. Our egos have completely taken over that even listening to someone with an opposing view seems almost impossible. Caught in our own echo-chambers, there is little interest to learn anymore—only to feel good about what little we know.

I feel like the phrase “be the change you wish to see in the world” came and went without much fanfare. If only Instagram and TikTok had been around during Ghandi’s time, we’ll be walking around half naked with a towel around our waist. But while Ghandi troubled himself with the problems of a Nation, we only need to contend with ourselves. The only world we need to change is our own. So if we start with empathy, and direct it towards those in our immediate circle—our parents, spouse, children, relatives, dependents etc—the sum total of us all doing so would change the world for the better. To be more empathetic is the only New Year’s resolution you need, and perhaps then we wouldn’t be looking so eagerly towards an after-life — we would already be in heaven.

To a new year of empathy and understanding.

A S