Auld Lang Syne, and Happy New Year

We're here because we're here

I wrote an essay for this Substack last week that felt very meaningful, and decided it would make a good audio recording. Then, while making the audio recording, I thought, “You know, this might make a decent video.”

To write a good essay when I’m in a solid flow state is a couple hours’ work. (It takes three times that long when I’m not.)

A recording, with some subtle ambient music added, puts a couple more hours on that pile. No big deal.

But this video is taking…forever.

I love the medium of video. I love making video. I lose track of time and the need to eat and everything else when I’m working on a video. I want to do a lot more work with video in 2023 because it’s such a powerful medium and it has become, increasingly, the primary way a great many of us consume information.

But in this case, I did things all wrong. I didn’t have a shot list. I didn’t film anything for the occasion. I went through the essay, line by line, and tried to find footage I found evocative of the story I was trying to tell. It was a crapshoot, and it bogged down the process.

I have no idea how many hours are now on the pile, but they are layered high and deep. And I wanted the thing done before New Year’s, because it’s about Christmas, and Christmas is already fading from most people’s minds, even the ones who keep their trees up until February.

In the process of really putting the words and the audio into a visual format, I’ve also discovered some things I think I need to go back and tweak in the original writing. I still struggle to set the boundaries when I write about deeply personal things. Some things should perhaps be left unsaid, or at least, only said vaguely.

But that means re-writing, re-recording, re-mixing, and only then fixing the video, which is already about 60% done.

Yesterday I spent most of the day on it, thinking I was in the home stretch, only to quit in frustration when dinner approached, realizing I had not only not finished it, but I’d missed out on family time I should have been spending during the holiday break.

I have this issue where, when I work on a piece of content, I treat it like a bomb with a countdown timer. I can procrastinate about starting a piece of work for months, but if I actually begin to craft that piece, I ABSOLUTELY MUST FINISH AND PUBLISH AS FAST AS POSSIBLE.

Have I mentioned that I’m neurotic?

But I’m working on changing my negative habits. Last year was about recognizing the ways in which I need to change, this year is about continuing that process of discovery while actualizing the changes I can.

So I’m not going to work on the video today. It’s bothering me just to type those words. But it’s New Year’s Day, and I’m going to spend it playing with my family, watching football, and enjoying one of our last big feasts of the season. This is my year of “get shit done,” and I have to tell you, my gut is signaling that 2023 is going to be a significant improvement over 2019-2022. (It would be hard for it not to be, but there’s always nuclear war in the back pocket.)

I will provide the video to you, presumptuous in the notion that you will enjoy it, as soon as it’s ready. I will take as much time as is necessary to see that it attains that status.

Until then, I would like to leave you with two videos. The first, from Novelist and Youtuber John Green, is an excerpt from his book, The Anthropocene Reviewed, and it’s about the history of the song “Auld Lang Syne,” and other things, set to a video of a walk in the wintry woods. I found it poignant, and quite moving at moments. It’s easier than it’s ever been to make me cry (my wife says it’s because I’m Irish) but it certainly did that to me both times I watched it. You may have a heart of stone and be unmoved. That’s OK too. Sometimes I wish I were a lot more stoic.

In any case, it’s an appropriate reflection for this time of year:

The second video is done in a format I’d love to emulate in my own short filmmaking, and it’s about a topic near and dear to my heart: how to read more books in a time where we spend too many waking hours staring into our glowy screens, like you’re doing right now.

It’s humorous, insightful, and takes us to some of the most beautiful bookstores in the world.

I’ve decided that my goal is to read 23 books in 2023. Because it’s obvious and cheesy and cliché and I think I might actually be able to do it if I set my mind to it. This video was my first step on the path to that goal, serving as a reminder that I need to “get good” at reading real books and not just online articles and Twitter threads.

That’s all from my end. Here’s to a 2023 filled with growth and prosperity and meaning and love. Happy New Year’s to you and yours!