A brand new year, and in keeping with a fresh start, there’s some junk from last year that I’d like to get rid of. Call it a kind of emotional/mental housecleaning, if you must. Please bear with me as I vent just a bit.

First, the word “staycation” has got to go. It’s a word that’s meant to placate us when we don’t have the time or resources to take a vacation somewhere other than at home. In this case, it isn’t safe for anyone to do a lot of traveling, so staying home is more of a necessity. Staycation just rubs salt into the wound with it’s forced cheerfulness, and I’d be grateful to see it gone from the lexicon permanently, perhaps by being placed in a firey dumpster and allowed to smolder for an extended period. Is the concept of a vacation as I’ve defined it here a sign of privilege? Yes, absolutely, which makes staycation doubly so.

The whole concept of starting a new year out by taking up healthier habits is a noble enterprise, but this year is the perfect time to tell the diet and exercise industries to go fuck themselves. Any comfort to be had during a global pandemic is worthwhile as we try to ride out the shit-storm of Covid-19. These industries grind us down at the best of times by reinforcing unrealistic body image expectations; during a time when leaving the house is a real-life game of Russian Roulette, exercise is a thing we may find we want to do, whether to relive boredom, to pump some nice serotonin through our bodies, or just to help stay active. Going to the gym is a foolish risk right now, and exercising at home isn’t practical for many people; we should stop beating ourselves up and give ourselves a pass, now especially.

Organizations can stop asking me for my cell phone number; I only give it out to friends and a select group of colleagues. I have enough rage-inducing moments weeding through my email and throwing away all that junk; I don’t want to raise my blood pressure even further by having to do the same thing with my phone – which I have even less understanding of and patience with than my laptop.

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