This year has been a mixed bag. On Thanksgiving I usually just reflect comfortably on the past 12 months, since it’s a nostalgic kind of holiday. A time to harvest thoughts—a time to rend, a time to sow. There’s something mystical and mythical about the country’s original inhabitants having a potluck with interloping pilgrims, a short peaceful interlude before the colonizing shit hit the fan.
So, what am I thankful for in 2024? At least for now, I cautiously thank the tech companies for giving us soft- and hardware that can (and will) transport us to ever-increasing virtual utopias (and dystopias, too). We are going to need a few virtual worlds to inhabit if we’re going to stay artificially sane in this one.
Sanity, like normality, is relative, so I am thankful that we have desktop and head-top AR and AI devices we can use to make our reality a little bit easier to take.
My only message for today: Revel in the fact that the president pardoned a few turkeys (without thinking about the one the DOJ set free), watch the parade, take in some football and enjoy an augmented Ocular holiday. Somehow, we’ll all be happier in the end.
