Well, we survived 2025. But, did we?

My brain is overloaded. Is yours?

As we enter the new year, we have been hammered with traditional lists upon lists of the things that made 2025 unique, including fires and floods, earthquakes and volcanoes, wars and peace, Popes and Presidents, politicians and the perpetual election cycle, scandals, and something uniquely unspeakable called the Epstein Viles. That is what the NY Post called it. And they are right.

You have your own list of things that mattered to you and your family, and your circle of friends.

They might include births and weddings, graduations and vacations, promotions and parties, shoveling snow in the dark and warm summer evenings staring at an Ocean Point sunset. It might be a dark, rainy day while you celebrate the life of a close friend, cherished relative, or treasured pet.

For me, 2025 was the first time since, well, since the 1970s, that I spent any time in a hospital. It was not fun, but instructive to see how our health system operates, from the perspective of the guy staring up from the sheets at the gowned and masked doc and the caring and wonderful nurses. They said I would survive but cautioned it would take a long time to get back to normal, whatever normal is for a graduate of the high school class of 1959. They spoke the truth.

I did learn that the Veterans Administration healthcare system can, and does, work as it is supposed to work. Sure, it is not perfect. Nothing  that we humans do is perfect. Perish the thought that it will be run by A.I. in the future.

As we watch our political and expert leaders, on the right and left, and in between debate what to do with Obamacare/Medicaid/subsidies and the rest, it might be a good time to take a look at the largest national single-payer health care system, the VA.

Other things, like knocking down the White House’s East Wing, issuing pardons galore, TV temper tantrums, and a sort of nap at cabinet meetings, along with attempts to rename the Kennedy Center, the Gulf of Mexico, and mint a coin bearing his image, were questionable. And, his continuing claim and this is the greatest (see insert your favorite pseudo fact) in the nation’s history were, well, just a bit unnecessary.

This year, it will be a bit tougher for him to blame the state of the economy on the last administration. It is harder to blame the ills of the nation on the last guy when you are sitting in the driver's seat.

It seems that the current president is making the same mistake the last one made. Don’t tell the Hannaford shoppers that prices are going down. We buy groceries every week. We see the prices. We see with our own eyes when a pound of coffee jumps 25%, or the Christmas roast costs hundreds, and a pound of ground beef is a couple bucks more than it was the last time you made a yummy batch of chili on a snowy afternoon.

This year, it will be interesting to watch the White House as the political class tiptoes into the November election. There are already some cracks in the big, beautiful political wall that held the White House coalition together. Already, we see threats lodged against GOP stalwarts who step over the line and vary from the official political talking points.

We see MAGA GOP stalwarts partnering with Democrats to back Obamacare tax subsidies. The congressional support for the threatened conflict in the Caribbean and saber-rattling towards Venezuela seems to be less than solid.

And last, but not least of all, is the Epstein Viles.

Yes, a vile and unholy mess is unfolding. Day after day, we have seen a British prince defrocked, prominent professors cowed, big business shots outed, and politicians on both sides shamed. It is nasty, nasty stuff, and I fear it will get worse.

I wonder whether the contests of 2026 will make the national and local political battles of 2025 look like a group of first graders playing Tiddlywinks.

In the words of author Louise Penny’s character, the unique poet named Ruth Zardo, everything is fine. You can look it up.

Happy New Year.