Ostrich Weekly Forecast: Jan 20
A muted Five O'Clock Day.
Today is Five O'Clock Day in my little dot on the map, the first day of the year when the sun sets after 5 pm. I celebrate the day as a sign of brighter things to come, however long the night may be. In an astronomical sense it's as true as ever, but this year the day has to share its light with an inauspicious inauguration, and the metaphor feels awfully taut.
I thought I might go looking for the good things that happened in 2024, or that we expect in 2025, to offer evidence that some things really are getting brighter. Let's see, kids in Cameroon are getting vaccinated for malaria—that's genuinely marvelous. What else. Uh, they figured out why orange cats are orange (a mutation on the X chromosome.) The stranded astronauts get to come home. Oasis is getting back together?
I feel there's a message here, a lesson I keep re-learning, though I don't like it very much: We'll have to be the sunlight.
So there's our challenge for the week. Find some opportunity to be a ray of sunshine, even if you don't feel much like shining. Open up your bushel basket, and let your lamp do its thing.
