TRANSCRIPT

I’m Maggie Smith, and this is The Slowdown. 

Is it too late to wish you all a Happy New Year? I don’t think so. I don’t think there’s ever an expiration date on well wishes, and frankly, we need all the well wishes we can get for 2026! 

The year we left behind was a real mixed bag, wasn’t it? I was ill on New Year’s Eve and went to bed around 10:00, so I missed the midnight ball drop and the confetti and the whole shebang. My son and daughter stayed up together and counted down, toasting with champagne flutes filled with sparkling cider, as is tradition. (They kindly skipped the other tradition of ours—late night living room karaoke—because they knew their sick mother was trying to sleep. They’re good kids.)

But the next morning, when I asked them how their celebration went without me, they agreed: the atmosphere on TV wasn’t very festive. My daughter said the “highlight reel” of the year’s news stories was more of a lowlight reel of its worst horrors. Nothing like gearing up for midnight with a slideshow of everything terrible that happened over the last twelve months. It doesn’t exactly make you want to toast and cheer. And now what? The truth is, some of the worst of last year is already carrying over into this one. 

Unfortunately, a new year doesn’t mean a completely fresh start or positive outcomes. If only! But it does somehow feel like an opportunity for us to leave some things behind, tie up loose ends, and be more intentional about what we bring with us into the future. 

If there’s no expiration date on wishing others a happy new year, then there’s no expiration date on figuring out how to HAVE a happy new year. So I’m asking myself: What kind of person do I want to be this year? What do I especially want to tend to in my life? In my relationships and in my work? And what can I commit to doing to make this year more livable than last year—not only for me and my family, but for people who are more in need than we are. This year is going to be challenging in some of the same ways that last year was challenging, so how are we going to meet those challenges together?

Today’s poem is perfect for the new year, and it’s not too late to share it with you. In fact, I think it’s right on time. 

New Year
by Kate Baer

Look at it, cold and wet like a newborn
calf. I want to tell it everything—how we
struggled, how we tore out our hair and 
thumbed through rusted nails just to 
stand for its birth. I want to say: look how
far we’ve come.  Promise our resolutions.

But what does a baby care for oaths and 
pledges? It only wants to live.