In 2021, I’ll stick to the highway

It’s that time of year when I refuse to make new year’s resolutions.

Been there, done that, burnt the T-shirt is my standard response when plans for the coming year are discussed.

For me, these resolutions are all about change. But becoming fitter and eating healthier and quitting the bad stuff and saving the earth by using overpriced, recycled shopping bags are all, realistically speaking, utterly impossible fantasies.

I don’t want to change. I’m quite happy to stay the way I am. Don’t get me wrong, I want to grow and go on adventures, but why on earth would I want to find inner peace when finding a new craft beer at an undiscovered pub is so much more fun and so easily attainable on any given Saturday?

I also would much rather watch cricket at the Wanderers than meditate in the botanical gardens.

Apparently “taking the road less travelled” is among the top 10 new year’s resolutions worldwide.

Most of the world population is under the unrealistic impression that there’s a romantic mysticism to taking that road and that it will make the world of difference.

Sorry to say, we were all forced on that road in 2020 and I am sure that should we hold a national referendum, the result will be a unanimous declaration in all 12 official languages that this year was hell.

The year that was, was undoubtedly the single biggest year of change in our lifetime.

When we were herded on to the road less travelled, we never suspected it would lead us straight to house arrest. We never thought the shops lining that road were prohibited from selling underwear or swimwear, or that the pineapple trees along that road were stripped bare of their fruit.

After almost an entire year on that road, we can all agree that it sure did not lead us to the beach. Perhaps, I will, after all, make an exception this year and make one resolution: to take the highway in 2021.

In retrospect, I do cope much better with road rage and potholes and bribing cops and traffic jams and taxi drivers than I do with the challenges posed on the road less travelled.

Danie Toerien.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.