Brianna Parkins: 'My wish is that 'minding others' should carry as much social capital as running marathons.' But luckily by the end 2025, it wouldn’t have even made the top five worst things that happened to me that year. I will let upset wash over me like the spray of an errant wave when I’ve stood too close on a seawall. I will be the same lumpen, bad tempered, unhealed hobgoblin with wonky eyeliner and a bung arm as I was last year. Last year I learned that in the end and at the worst, we’re all we have.

Source: The Irish Times January 02, 2026 11:00 UTC