Tonight, when the clock strikes 11:59 PM on New Year’s Eve, I’ll be sitting by myself in my bedroom on the third floor of our townhouse, looking outside at the dark sky, and listening for a song.
What song? you ask.
The song that wants to be my Song of the Year.
When I hear it, I’ll write down it down in my journal. Then when the clock moves past midnight, I’ll play the song aloud and let it seep into me as my Song of the Year. I learned this ritual from the always interesting and insightful Theresa Reed the Tarot Lady.
I did this ritual a year ago, and the year before that, and wow, was each song spot-on for the rest of those respective years! So spot-on, it kinda spooked me.
On December 31, 2019, I heard Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie play in my ear. Have you listened to the lyrics lately?
People on streets.
People on streets.
It’s the terror of knowing
What this world is about.
Watching some good friends screaming,
“Let me out!”
I don’t know why I heard that song on that dark night on the last day of 2019. But later, when the COVID-19 virus spread quickly across the world in the winter and Seattle went on lockdown by March, I thought about the people on the streets. I thought about the people dying. I thought about all of us being under pressure.
The last part of this song always gets me.
Can’t we give ourselves one more chance?
Why can’t we give love that one more chance?
Why can’t we give love, give love, give love, give love, give love, give love, give love, give love, give love?
‘Cause love’s such an old-fashioned word,
And love dares you to care for the people on the edge of the night,
And love dares you to change our way of caring about ourselves.
This is our last dance.
This is our last dance.
This is ourselves.
Under pressure.
Under pressure.
Pressure.
What can’t we give love one more chance? *
Sheesh, still gives me chills thinking about it.
A year goes by. I survive. Marcus survives. Most of my friends and family members survive. I am grateful. And on December 31, 2020, I hear another song play in my ear.
This time, it’s Revolution by The Beatles.
You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We’d all love to change the world
You tell me that it’s evolution
Well, you know
We’d all love to change the world
Wasn’t 2021 a revolutionary year, both in good ways and bad? To me, the pandemic has caused a revolution. It has fundamentally changed the way we live, the way we work, the way we socialize.
But when you talk about destruction
Don’t you know that you can count me out
Amen. You can count me out. I’m for evolution, not destruction. I’m for helping people and protecting people’s health, and not about asserting my personal preferences.
Throughout 2021, the chorus of this song gave me some solace that we’d make it through the second year of the pandemic.
Well, don’t you know it’s gonna be…alright
don’t you know it’s gonna be…alright
don’t you know it’s gonna be…alright
Thank God, many of us made it through. Here in the U.S., vaccines for COVID-19 were created and disseminated at an incredibly fast rate. I’m so grateful to all the scientists that worked on the vaccines and to all the health care professionals that administered them.
So, what will I hear tonight when the clock strikes 12:59PM?
What earworm will crawl in and play at different times throughout 2022?
Will it be as spot-on as my songs for 2020 and 2021?
I have no idea. That’s the exciting part. You’ll have to wait until one year from now to hear the answer. Until then, I’m wishing you a beautiful night and a new year full of hope, good health, and peace. ✨
* My God, Freddie Mercury and David Bowie, I miss you both so much.
Peg Cheng is the author of Rebel Millionaire, a guide for how to retire as a millionaire even if you make a modest income, and The Contenders, a novel that asks, can enemies become friends? She is also the proud owner of Plaid Frog Press with her husband Marcus Donner. Born in Southern California to Taiwanese parents, Peg currently lives in Seattle, Washington.
Photo by Eric Nopanen
