Dear PiePie,
It’s a strange milestone – the year. We mark birthdays and anniversaries and budget cycles by this slightly arbitrary concept of the year. I suppose there is some sort of rhythm to this timeframe, when the Earth makes a rotation around the Sun and the seasons cycle through once again. But we’ve all become so comfortable with the concept of the year that we, too, put up artificial boundaries between one year and the next – top events of 2021, Forbes annual billionaire list, Time person of the Year etc. It does, however, provide a natural reminder to pause, reflect and give thanks.
Around the world, 2021 saw the pandemic raged on in a stop-start fashion as we move from strict lockdown measures to easing of restrictions and back again, as new virus strains threaten again and again. We have been fortunate that there has been minimal practical impact on you, save for the fact that we have not quite been able to travel abroad as we might have wished and you have not been able to meet your grandparents. Decades-down, hopefully this period will fade away as merely a blip in the annals of history, but for now, the end is not in sight.
This year, crypto/metaverse (or perhaps you’ll know it as Web3) secured a solid foothold and looks to be here to stay. In this future that you’ll grow into, it seems likely that there will be parallel worlds – the physical and the digital – which should increasingly blend into a single connected all-encompassing entity. It will no longer seem strange that people spend vast fortunes for digital assets that can’t be felt or smelt, for these digital assets and worlds will reshape the boundaries of community and identity. I do wonder if this is a positive evolutionary step for humanity that so much of energy and resource will eventually be channeled into the digital and almost ethereal. But it is probably only natural that we turn towards satisfying the needs of the soul now that a larger portion of the world have their basic physical needs met. In any case, we watch with bated breath the world you shall inherit.
And how you’ve grown. You’ve learnt to say “don’t want” and “don’t need”, which is making our lives a little more difficult now that you’re able to voice your displeasure at the food you’re eating, the clothes you’re wearing, and the time you’re supposed to sleep. You’re developing a mischievous streak, deliberately going against what we’re telling you just to get a reaction out of us, before pacifying us by claiming that you are “so so naughty”. It is hard to get mad at you.
In a few days’ time, next year, you’ll be going to school! This will be another milestone for us as our routines will change, and you will start picking up habits and characteristics from your friends in school. We are excited and apprehensive. To the new year we come!
Love, Dad