Editor’s Note
If you’re wondering why the drudge of the year already feels like it’s in full force, the answer could be that Blue Monday falls this week. Contributing writer Andrew Donaldson says Blue Monday is the most miserable day of the year for no other reason than it’s the first day in the third week of January, and we’re all broke after the holidays and our New Year’s resolutions have come to nothing. He is, of course, writing from London, while we have the small mercies of sunshine and warmth. But still, I’m feeling the tiniest bits of negativity pushing through the cracks in the cement my holiday poured over last year.
Part of the problem with January is that it starts with the promise of “a new year, a new you,” but soon descends into “same old same old”. But a new book, The Self Delusion: How We Are Connected and Why That Matters by Tom Oliver, offers a new perspective. Oliver says we shouldn’t let our bodies define our existence because most of the 37 trillion cells we’re made up of have a really short lifespan, meaning that we’re made anew every few weeks or so. A new you, literally, over and over, again and again, all the time.
“By those standards,” wrote one reviewer, “there is no you — you’re deluded if you think you exist.”
So while you may be inhaling self-help books to deal with the new decade, perhaps you could follow the advice of Australian comedian Tim Minchin, who said in a graduation address, paraphrased here: Don’t panic, you’ll soon be dead. Life will sometimes seem long and tough. You’ll sometimes be happy and sometimes sad, and then you’ll be old and then you’ll be dead. There is only one sensible thing to do with this empty existence, and that’s fill it. Life is best filled by learning as much as you can about as much as you can, taking pride in whatever you’re doing, having compassion, sharing ideas, running, being enthusiastic — then there’s love and travel and wine and sex and art and kids and giving and mountain climbing. In the end, it’s an incredibly exciting thing — this one meaningless life of yours.