January 6th, 2024

Deja Vu

I have been absorbed in my annual end-of-the-year introspection and anticipation of a new year ahead. The past 12 months mostly occurred during my 70th year on the planet. There were good things: finishing my second novel, 20/20, taking an 18-day road trip with Donna down the Pacific Coast visiting friends, a wonderful Thanksgiving with my daughter’s in-laws and then my brother-in-law’s family. The tough side of the ledger has one big entry: knee replacement surgery on Sept. 13th. While my recovery has been successful, the entire effort dominated much of the second half of the year.

I’m determined to make the next year better by remembering and reasserting some basic goals and values. New Year’s resolutions never fully encompass what I’m talking about. My 2024 goals are not new, but more an updating of old desires and goals and energizing them with a new determination to dedicate myself to those goals and to keep them front of mind throughout the year. Write more, including a third novel. Improve my guitar playing. Be a better partner. Spend time with friends I care about. Waste less time.

For better or worse, these resolutions are recurring themes in my life. Thus, the title of the blog. I’ve posted a link below to a blog I wrote in July 2022, gordonmottauthor.com. I’ve also added below a quote from our family therapist, whose words unleashed my blocked desire to write fiction and start a blog. There are always excuses for why I have not been able to stick to those desires and regularly put my thoughts down on “paper.” Procrastination. Rebellion at the thought I HAVE to write to keep interest in my blog alive. Life’s curveballs and demands; a new knee, a daughter’s wedding, the small crises of daily life, keeping us fed and the house running. Fatigue over on-line battles with anti-vaxxers, Covid deniers and MAGA Trumpers. Golf. Visitors, etc, etc, etc.

I take solace in knowing that Covid did wreck havoc in my life in 2020 and 2021. Restoring some sense of purpose and normality took time. Yes, that is partly rationalization. However, our virtual lockdown in our own home from March 2020 until March 2021, when we flew to New York for our first vaccination, presented real challenges. In that year, despite our best efforts, Donna and I battled Covid infections — mine much milder than hers. We did spend more time together, without travel or socializing or anything else. But despite the inward focus, which in many ways was healthy and rejuvenating, in the end, I simply lost momentum. Not a depression per se but a loss of hope and optimism, up to that point two dependable constants in my life. The isolation often seemed like it would never end. But also, in that long, nearly two year period, two dear friends died, each loss a searing reminder of my age.

But here we are, nearly three years after that fateful realization we were living through a global pandemic. I have regained some motivation. I’m healthy again. My network of friends, here in Mexico and around the world, is thriving. Donna and I are enjoying the life we have built here.

And, in the midst of all the angst, 20/20, my second novel is written. The story follows the travails of Duncan Mount, a disgraced journalist who gets thrown into a conspiracy that threatens the future of American democracy. What better day than January 6th to announce that book will be coming soon — a propitious day also to relaunch my blog and begin reasserting my voice and my thoughts about life and the world we live in. In the weeks ahead you’ll read about sneakers, Antarctica, and my questions about the events barreling towards us in 2024.

I hope you enjoy. Best of luck with your own resolutions.

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You can also find all my old blogs there.

Links:

I’m Back
https://gordonmottauthor.com/2022/07/02/july-1-2022/

Quote from A Debut, May 10th, 2019
Our wonderful family therapist, Dr. Steve Fochios Sr. had asked me the most crucial question. He had heard my ramblings for years about my desire to write fiction, and my rationalizations about why it wasn’t happening. He asked me: “Do you have anything to say?” I knew I did, and in my mind, there is a dividing line before and after his question. It broke the logjam, and I began to look for the answer.