Maniac

2025 Energy.

We always had a StairMaster in the basement of my childhood home—steps to nowhere, I called them. My parents spent hours climbing on that machine, especially my mother. Most of her winter weekend afternoons in the cold of Minneapolis were spent on the StairMaster as she watched Flashdance and belted out Michael Sembello’s 1983 classic, “Maniac.” She would step her heart out with an intensity I’d only seen when that song came on.

I’ve been thinking a lot about her on the StairMaster, as I’ve also been trapped at home with my two children over a long, cold winter break. I get the intensity now. I also get the volume. (She would blast the music.) The easiest way to understand your parents is to become one. One needs to escape from the mundanity of young children, especially when cold weather limits your activities. So I usually take to my trampoline (it’s a mini one; I swear by it), and I sprint like there is no tomorrow. Yesterday, in honor of my mother, I put on “Maniac.”

It was then I realized that this is the energy we all need in 2025. I have never liked endings—not of parties, not of movies, and not of years. But I love beginnings. Beginnings are full of promise. So to more Maniac energy in 2025, it’s sure to be different.