Hello 2022!

I must confess that I have a rather curmudgeonly attitude to making New Year's Resolutions. Very, very rarely do I ever make any.

I actually kind of agree with bratty Calvin. Our society's pressure to engage in constant “self-improvement” is, in my opinion, simply a secular continuation of the harmful Christian doctrine that we are all hopeless sinners and need to improve our wicked ways to achieve illusory “perfection” and justify ourselves to God. Whether religious or secular, this pressure is actually a form of social control. It has been particularly abusive of women and girls, although it's not really good for anyone, of course.

I'm not talking about things we legitimately need to do for physical, mental or emotional health reasons or changes that are necessary to achieve self-actualization to become who we truly are. What I mean by “self-improvement” are qualities that we often feel we “should” possess because society has drummed the ideas into us, for example, perpetual dieting, obsessive exercising, repressing our true selves or true emotions to please others, etc. Those are the things which, unfortunately, are often the subject of New Year’s Resolutions.

Her Royal Highness the Cat, however, says that I am full of shit as usual. She makes the same two New Year's Resolutions every January 1st. So far the only Resolution she ever accomplishes is the second one, thank goodness.