2022 went by so fast, but how different was it from previous years?

Time is traveling at warp speed for me.

The starship Enterprise seems more real today, and some people are even suggesting that the universe has no beginning and end. It has me thinking that maybe we should do away with calendars and clocks then.

You know, I learned a few things about French writers at Mount St. Mary’s College, and there was one thing in particular from Voltaire, a French author and philosopher.

He offered this morsel of thought in a letter to Count Schomberg in August 1769:

"Animals have these advantages over man: They never hear the clock strike, they die without any idea of death, they have no theologians to instruct them, their last moments are not disturbed by unwelcome and unpleasant ceremonies, their funerals cost them nothing, and no one starts lawsuits over their wills."

I am beginning to wonder why mankind wasn’t so lucky. Perhaps another sip from the flask might offer some clarity.

Queen Elizabeth II died of old age in 2022.

Too many folks, including some of my friends, departed this life because of COVID-19. George, an old friend, sat with me for a few hours on my front porch talking one summer day about memories and moonshine. Three weeks later, he would lay dead from COVID.

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Many other locals would succumb to the same disease. 2022 was a year of sickness for many. COVID is still being discussed and is unsettled.

Death has made its rounds to many other friends' doors. My soldier pal, Harold Clancy from Vietnam days, has marched on too.

Many others have been born during this same trip around the sun. New babies and their pictures dot the pages of Facebook, and beautiful kids seem in good supply. 2022 is a priceless moment in time for many families with their new arrivals.

A future of hope and promise are included in this calendar of wishes by love ones.

Proud grandparents can be seen sharing their embraces of happiness with their bouncing bundles of joy. A few spoilers of love are pictured daily on my computer screen.

One of these newborns might become president one day, if our democracy survives. Hope he or she is a benevolent ruler.

Wars always seem to occupy the headlines of the media throughout the years. Russia’s assault and delivered pilferage to the Ukraine is no exception. I wonder if it is possible, for just one year, for all warriors to stay at home and allow earth’s people to live in peace.

Maybe it’s a blessing animals can’t read the newspapers.

Politics seems like it never changes much either. Political parties continue to fight each other and the nation suffers from a lack of cooperation. The national debt of $31 trillion appears totally ignored.

2022 was not a year for balancing budgets. Credit card debt also seemed on the uptick by many users of those plastic tools of buying power.

Sam Bankman-Fried, a baby-faced kid, has taken his company FTX and his venture of crypto shares to the bottom of a dry well for his many investors. Everyone seemed surprised by the pending loss of their investments. Just another shrewd conman. Lawsuits being prepared. Bank accounts have been drained.

Bernie Madoff is remembered.

Bankman-Fried requests a vegan meal in the slammer. I might offer him some pea soup and wafers and ask him to reflect.

Immigration and crime problems occupied the 2022 headlines, but few remedies were offered. Drug abuse seems more rampant than ever.

Education took a few left turns, and racism is still very much alive in many circles. I doubt reparations being discussed will cure racism, but the Native Americans are eagerly watching from afar.

Theologians have their hands full with life’s problems, but I’m thinking too many people have forgotten the Golden Rule. What’s next?

The year 2022 in review: Not much different from others really.

That elusive search for inner peace within mankind continues.

But I will lift a glass skyward nonetheless on New Year’s Eve, blow my C&O Canal horn at midnight, and offer a toast from Dargan: Let’s keep hope alive!

Perhaps, too, this long road of travel really does have an end somewhere down the way. There have been more steps taken than will be had further down the path of life.

And the happenings have been a little more interesting and emotional.

When I sit down, blackberry libation in hand, and ponder as many thoughts as I possibly can at one time before pausing to collect my thoughts, I become mindful of that sand in the hour glass. I am more deliberate as I take the key and wind my grandfather’s clock each week.

Pete Waters is a Sharpsburg resident who writes for The Herald-Mail.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: 2022 in review: More steps behind me than ahead