New Year 2024: Can we get back to normality? - Tommy Wilson

Here we are saying sayonara to yet another year. Where did the last one go? They seem to fly by, writes Tommy Wilson. Photo / Getty Images

OPINION

Time’s up! Everybody out - 2023 is about to be made redundant like a friend we never really got to know.

Here we are saying sayonara to yet another year. Where did the last one go? They seem to fly by.

I find myself counting life in summers now - counting on love and laughter to get me through winter like a blue lady through the night.

2023 - like its two post-Covid mates - was once again a year of unheralded anxiety. Anxiety at another level, punctuated with “almost”, “not quite”, “what’s up”, “what’s next” and thankfully - “up the Wahs”.

It certainly has been another year of uncertainties, not knowing if normality - whatever that is - will ever return.

I guess we had it so good for so long in the long white cloud, we became somewhat apathetic in our concerns for each other and the communities we live in.

Now cracks are starting to show regarding our levels of loyalty and love for each other and and the leadership in our country.

Back in the day, post-Woodstock and pre-Sweetwaters, we had it so sweet.

The Mount at this time of year was full of flowers in the hair and music in the air, and no one had a care in the world. Well, that’s what we thought on the front line of freedom.

Fast-forward to today, almost 50 years down the track, and it’s haere mai 2024 - can we have something sweet to celebrate again, please? Like the 1970s?

It’s a bit of a box of chocolates, this upcoming year.

Nobody knows where we will be by next New Year except for the Ngāti Know-alls. Akin to the couch coaches of the last World Cup, the Ngāti Know-alls are directly related to the other three tribes I am not a big fan of: the Ngāti Whingers, the Happy Clappers and the Oma Rāpeti (rabbit-hole divers).

My New Year’s resolution is to stay well clear of them all.

Belonging to a bunch of Goodhists (not on Google, as we made it up) gives me great hope heading into a year of “yes, we can”. Why not walk together into whatever comes our way - both good, bad and ugly?

Music is a good sounding board for the future, so what’s in town over the next week leading into the New Year could well set the scene for 2024.

As Neil Young sang, “24 and there’s so much more”.

Neil is not in town, but Hello Sailor, L.A.B and Dire Straits Legacy are, so let’s see what their songs have to say.

Opening bat – the sultan of swing: Is the walk of life we all want for our families and whānau so far away that money matters more than mana? I hope not.

Dire straits are something we could all be living in next year if we don’t get our three parties paddling the waka in the right direction. Right now, it’s looking like six months in a leaky boat - in a crowded house of leaders.

Not so if we all start putting our paddles into the water. Good sailors were never made from smooth seas, so hello sailor, we all have the potential to play a part in this waka ride.

A great example are the loyal locals of Matakana Island, who stepped up and stepped in with kai and kindness for the Fire and Emergency New Zealand firefighters at the front line of their forest fire.

Loyal leadership is key in any community, and ours will be tested come July 20, 2024, when we vote for our new cohort of Tauranga City councillors.

If we could turn back time - and we can’t - we could learn a lot from what has been achieved by the current city commissioners. We need a posse of proven leaders to guard and guide the safe anchorage of our Tauranga city.

Call you loyal, call me loyal; loyalty is and will be a precious commodity in the testing times we have come through and those we’re about to enter over these next weeks and months, starting with Waitangi Day.

Let’s light fewer fires and fire up more hope and flames of friendship between those who matter most to us, starting with our own whānau and families.

Have a hippy New Year, whānau.

All the very blessed for 2024.

Tommy Wilson (Ngāti Ranginui/Ngāi te Rangi), Community Connector, Te Tuinga and best-selling author.