Back to December...

The title of this post is taken from my favorite Taylor Swift song of the same name from her latest album, Speak Now.  Not only does the song's title appropriately evoke December since we are currently in the final days of that month, but it also evokes a universal story and theme that particularly resonates with me as this year draws to a close.  Although "Back to December" addresses a male significant other in the wake of a breakup, as portrayed in Taylor Swift's video for the song, the lyrics can be applied to any kind of friendship or close relationship, and expresses the hopelessly wretched feeling of wishing one could take something back that seems irreversible:

"...Your guard is up and I know why --
So this is me swallowing my pride, standing in front of you, saying I'm sorry for that night...
And I'd go back to December, turn around, and make it alright --
I go back to December all the time.

These days, I haven't been sleeping, staying up, playing back myself leaving --
And I think about summer, all the beautiful times, I watched you laughing from the passenger's side...
I'd go back in time and change it, but I can't --
So if the chain is on your door, I understand..."

The lyrics of the song also convey the importance of appreciating those close to us whom we could easily take for granted, and of "speaking" (the theme that threads the songs of the album) that appreciation to our loved ones, as Taylor Swift demonstrates in her video for the song when she drafts her "poem of apology" which she slips into the boy's jacket pocket.  The video also effectively depicts the desolation of the speaker's feelings through the December snow blowing into the house -- notably from outside the bedroom WINDOW -- and through the boy being left "out in the cold", so to speak:


"BACK TO DECEMBER" VIDEO -- TAYLOR SWIFT

 

Finally, the sentiment expressed in the song of desperately wishing one could go back and change things, or make things right, or do things over, particularly resonates at the end of a year or at the beginning of a new one when the so-called "resolutions" are made.  Such "resolutions" can all too soon be forgotten, or broken unless consciously scribbled in a notebook, as Taylor Swift shows us in the video.

So, to all my dear family and friends that read this blog post: here is my conscious scribbling of the resolution to "speak" my appreciation and gratitude for you and to you in the coming year, or as Taylor Swift puts it, to "go back to December all the time."