Thoughts On Wrapping Up 2023

2023 was a momentous year in JP-World. And I have some random thoughts on it as it comes to a close. 

We are all getting older. 2023 was the first full year that all three of my children are settled in their lives, with two being married and one as a Dominican Catholic priest. It was also the last year that a majority of those three children were under the age of 30. My middle son hits that milestone birthday early this coming January. 

I remember being a kid and hearing a popular expression: Never trust anyone over 30. What a monumentally stupid sentiment that was, just dripping with the egotism that seemed to engulf many in the first wave of the baby boom early in their young lives. I definitely trust all of my children, no matter which side of that three-decade age-marker they may inhabit.

It was also the fist time in my 60+ years that I made a conscious decision about how I want to spend the working portion of my life. I chose my college by following the choice of my best friend. I chose law school because it would make my parents happy and proud of me, and because it seemed a more lucrative choice than anything else on my menu. Neither was a bad choice, and I got along fine for quite a number of years. But things change and I became quite unhappy in the final stages of my career. I finally made a choice about what I wanted to do, and followed through on it. One commercial drivers license later and I am earning my living by driving a big truck. It feels good to be living under my own set of choices instead of on the currents set in motion by the choices of others. I recommend it.

There are other parts of 2023 that did not go as well – I was less connected with distant family and with real-life friends than I would have liked. This is something I need to improve on in 2024. 

I have also been quite unsuccessful at reducing the number of possessions living rent-free under my roof. I have been good at accumulating things, but much less good at letting them go. Plain old junk needs to be tossed, and things of more value need to be given away or sold. For example, the vintage prewar Bendix combination radio and phonograph in my basement is something that is not adding value to my life. It is cool and all, but my life would be no worse if it was not taking space in my basement. There are many things like this – things that I bought or accepted for free because I thought they were cool. Now, I find the idea of less clutter to be cool and need to follow that impulse with some action.

Finally, I think about what there was not enough of in 2023. 2024 definitely needs more walks with Marianne, and more blueberry pancakes. The more of each the better.

28 thoughts on “Thoughts On Wrapping Up 2023”

    • Thanks, Matt, and a happy 2024 to you as well. I think your observation is generally true, but my choice to work more hours puts some squeeze on walking and pancake time. We shall have to adjust!

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  4. 2023 was the year I downsized my big storage space to a small one; including donating over 65 books to my local library, and tossing a fair amount of stuff, thereby reducing my overhead by $150.00 a month! It can be done! Keep at it!

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    • You remind me that I did the same thing on the storage space I have maintained for closed files from my old office. There was a time when I could at least deduct it as an office expense, but now I no longer file a schedule C for a law office. Now that storage space has become a Grade-A millstone! At least it’s a smaller millstone this year.

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  5. Happy 2024! Downsizing is much easier when you have decided you want to do it! We are doing it at a slow and steady pace. We even downsized our body weight this year – and have had a good time downsizing the amount of clothing!

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    • I did some body weight downsizing too – with good effects so far. Yes, a slow and steady pace is probably the best. He said as he sits at his computer. 🙂

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  6. Re: your second-to-last paragraph, sounds like you need a little Marie Kondo guidance (which heard about unexpectedly at our Christmas Eve service this year). And yes, walks and pancakes; there can never be too many of either.

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    • I had heard of Marie Kondo, and heard a funny story about her during the last year – that after her third child she has mostly given up on her trademark tidying. We have three kids too, so that must have been it.

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      • Yes, that’s exactly the tidbit our pastor shared about Kondo. We couldn’t remember how it had anything to do with his Christmas Eve message (ha) but we did tune in to a few episodes of Kondo’s Netflix series. Seeing what true packrats have to deal with makes you feel a lot better about your relatively smaller pile of belongings.

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      • I dunno, I kind of think that anybody who has kept a prewar Bendix radio/phono (that plays only 78 rpm records and picks up only the AM and Shortwave bands) unused in the basement for over 20 years probably qualifies as a true packrat. I only listed that one because it is relatively large and conspicuous. Our main problem is that both of us are packrats, and both of us disagree on whose treasures need to go first. I am at the point, though, of volunteering mine., and thus ending a long marital stalemate. 🙂

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  8. I “get” it JP. I have a serious clutter problem and intend to work on that once I am retired. Right now, there doesn’t seem to be enough hours in a day, nor the weekend, to do the things I want to do, deal with my job and get things done in/around the house. It sure doesn’t get easier the older you get. I seriously wonder sometimes how three people and a bird lived in this house, when now, it’s just me and I cannot find things. I was once so organized that I could put my finger on anything in seconds. Sadly, those days are gone. The law biz is stressful and you’re always at the client’s beck and call, especially nowadays with smartphones/e-mail – you’re smart to be done with that career and onto a more satisfying career. I have been in the law biz now since February 1980 and I’ve seen a lot in my legal secretary years. Yes, do make time for the fun things in life, even with a topsy-turvy schedule!

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    • I know exactly what you mean about how a once-organized life can turn into one where I have trouble finding things around the house. It seems that systems have broken down through the years and have either not been replaced, or have been replaced with less effective systems. Or maybe it is just that I am less hung up on organization as I have aged.

      A big goal is to repurpose an upstairs room from the home office it is now to more of a den/TV room.

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      • We both have failed. 🙂
        My 2024 goal is to repurpose the current den/TV room back into the old den/TV room, as it has become a catch-all, so I can eventually use it for hobbies (art and photography) and some day I’ll get a modern TV as mine is a model from the ’90s with the bulbous back. I haven’t watched TV in about 15 years, except on Amazon Prime on my laptop.

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      • Expect a hassle when you go to get rid of that old tube TV – I cleared about four of them out of my house a few years ago and had to drive them to a recycle center and pay to get rid of them. Our local trash will not accept them, and nobody wants them to use as a television anymore.

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      • Wow – that’s good to know as I have an identical model in the basement. At one time, there were many TV shows on at 10:00 p.m., so I’d watch one live, record the others. Plus there were movies and mini-series back in the day. I have a long road ahead of me as to clutter – sigh. Happy New Year JP!

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