A Toast to Yet

It seems that in 2025 the fizz went out the cola, the sparkle out of the water, the bubbly out of the champagne, the taste of the brew fell flat and repugnant.  In a world already suffering from loneliness, the politics widened the divide and silenced good people.

At least that’s how it felt to me much of the year.  My joy and energy dissipated with every news headline.  People became quiet and more distant even more so than during the height of the COVID pandemic.  Many days were complete radio silence.

Early in the political year I wrote to my elected representatives and reminded them of the words of Voltaire:  “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”  Absurdity certainly describes 2025 every bit as much as the word of the year:  ​SLOP.  We cringe and squint at the atrocities that have already occurred, atrocities sanctioned by our elected representatives with their eyes wide open.  It is easy to feel hopeless.  Perhaps there are people in power who put their hope in our hopelessness.

Today, 80 mile per hour winds are howling through the trees and rattling my windows.  I try to picture the absurdities and atrocities of 2025 being blown away, the strong wind a cleansing breath from God.

And today I pray that the year 2026 will spark some collective effervescence.  We will sparkle again with life, laughter, togetherness, and actions that better serve ourselves, our neighbors, and the greater good.  As J. K. Rowling once wrote of her 200 rejections of the Harry Potter series, “rock bottom can be a solid foundation.”
With that thought in my mind, I’d like to offer a suggestion for next year’s word of the year.  How about YET?  Another writer, Paulette Perhach wrote:  “I’d like to submit YET as your new favorite word.  YET tells you that just because you don’t have something now doesn’t mean you won’t have it in the future if you work for it.”  We can “pull ourselves from the ruin of our choices.”  Let’s make YET our working vocabulary for the year 2026.

Let’s put down our phones and limit our social media. Let’s be mindful of our use of resources and who and what we are supporting every time we pick up our phones, shop, read, listen, or participate in some way.  Let’s stay aware that social media works by driving up outrage through clickbait and “likes” that sell advertising.  Let’s tell the social media giants whose guiding philosophy is “move fast and break things,” that we are not careless people. We build things; we don’t break things. Let us pride ourselves not on our excess but on ensuring that each person has enough.

Let’s demand a government that aligns with the well-being of its citizens and not just the wealthiest few.  Let’s demand that government do more to prepare for the changes AI is bringing as well as the impending loss of government revenue previously collected from human workers through income tax.  Let’s tax the robots.  You can’t give tax breaks to the wealthiest citizens and then allow them to discard the human work force and the tax revenue that hardworking Americans create to pay the federal and state bills and support the programs that serve us all.  We’ve already experienced how the poor planning for and regulation of social media has turned it into a hate machine, destroyed science and expertise with disinformation, and dismantled democracy here and around the world.  We haven’t stopped it…YET.

Let’s bring an end to profits over people, a policy that has led to our rising discontent.  Executive reimbursement has been tied to short-term profits and has risen over 900%.  CEOs and corporate America grow wealthy while making products that destroy us, our jobs, and the environment.  Find out where your retirement funds are invested, where you are a shareholder.  Vote, ask questions.  Think before shopping.

Democracy must be something we deliberately practice and that includes civility, kindness, tolerance, and expressions of gratitude for what and who are working. Call people by name.  Support local businesses.  Local shops serve the public good by keeping our neighborhoods lively and safe, by giving us places to gather and people to meet. They need our support.  And support our community spaces like parks and rec centers and libraries while standing up to the new “aggressive architecture” that makes it unpleasant to gather in these common areas.

We will share the fate of what happens next.  So let it be a shared love and concern for ourselves, our neighbors, their families and ours, and the safety and health of our communities.  Let’s walk together, pray together, cook together.  Let’s make things beautiful together.

Times are hard for so many, but that doesn’t mean we can’t enrich the times and places in which we live. We will write the story of our times.  We will write the story of democracy’s future.

Let’s toast to the New Year.  Let’s toast to collective effervescence, to the new you, the new me, the new we, and to the power of YET.