Thank You for Reading in 2022

In looking back on 2022, I don’t want to be profound, clichéd, or overwrought. I’ll leave that to the literary types. I’m a blue-collar writer, not an intellectual scribe. So, I will be brief.

Many good and bad things happened for the world and each of us, just as they do every year. It’s all a continuum. Natural disasters, accidents, diseases, and just plain bad luck will always happen.

What’s most frustrating is when bad things happen because of choices people make. Clearly the biggest bad decision of 2022 was Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. That has caused pain, suffering, and physical, emotional, and economic upheaval on a massive scale that we did not expect or need this year — not that we need it any year.

If Putin hadn’t invaded Ukraine, then we would have spent more of the year discussing Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Iraq, Lebanon, Mali, Syria, Yemen, and maybe even Nicaragua, where my friend Felix Maradiaga is still imprisoned under false pretenses by another petty dictator.

Putin’s war cast an enormous shadow over many things and diverted resources from other crises and priorities, such as some of the aforementioned conflicts and fragile states. Unfortunately, that shadow will loom over much of 2023.

But I don’t want to dwell on that now. The waning hours of a year are a time of reflection, celebration, and preparation for the year ahead.

We’ve all had our ups and downs this year. I completed my first book and signed a deal with a publisher. I am looking forward to its release in the summer of 2023 when I can share it with you. I am eager for you to read it, and look forward to your reaction ­— good, bad, or otherwise. That’s the excitement and risk of creating something — you hope people will appreciate it, but not everyone will. That’s life. I just hope I get better reviews than Spinal Tap did for their album “Shark Sandwich.”

In April I started a new job and that allowed me to have a few new experiences like flying out to sea to spend a few hours on the USS Abraham Lincoln. As jaded as I am, I can admit that was pretty cool.

I also received good news in November when the results of my prostate biopsy came back negative (no cancer). Unfortunately, I spent six months leading up to that news pretty convinced the results were going to go the other way based on family history. The period of uncertainty is incredibly draining and stressful. What makes it worse is struggling with whom to share it with in the meantime as you don’t want to cause other people stress when it could turn out to be nothing.

Still, all turned out well on that front. I can’t stress enough the importance of regular prostate screening, so if you have a prostate, get educated and follow the screening protocols, and if you care about someone with a prostate, make sure he’s taking care of it.

Like every year, we lost some good people in 2022. Former Defense Secretary Ash Carter was a shock. I can’t say we were friends, but I had many interactions with him over the years during my time as a journalist and student at the Kennedy School. He was a tremendous public servant committed to making the world better and educating future leaders.

More shocking was the loss of musician and mixologist Brother Cleve. His sudden passing this year was a gut punch.

I met Cleve in 1995 when I was a budding recording engineer and producer in Boston. Over the years, I engineered several projects with/for him, and we played together a few times when I filled in on guitar with Barrence Whitfield and the Savages.

Cleve was one of the most generous souls I have known, and we spent many hours discussing music, cocktails, tiki history, the weird places we had traveled, and life in general. In my book I mention a night I spent in Egypt emailing with him about Sakara King beer, which I was drinking at a hotel in el Minya. It was a rare moment when I was drinking something he had yet to experience.

I last saw him in DC in June when he came to town to mix drinks at Tiny Tiki. I’m still not sure how I got home that night, but it was one of the best nights of the year. Cleve was one of a kind, and the world is a far less interesting place without him.

So, as 2022 ends, pause to take stock of your successes, victories, and joys of the year, and reflect on the losses, challenges, and difficulties that you faced but endured or overcame to make it to another year. Raise a glass to those you said goodbye to this year and those who are still here.

Lastly, thank you for your support and readership this year. I appreciate the time you take to consider my thoughts on the world, and I am grateful for your feedback, pushback, and interest in my musings. And of course, I am extremely appreciative of my paid subscribers. Thank you for helping me keep this site going.

Best wishes for 2023, and I hope for all of us that I will be able to write more upbeat essays and analyses on foreign affairs in the new year.