This is a banner year because I have started my taxes earlier than ever before.
Note the key word “started”, meaning I bought a box of TurboTax. I have not opened the box, of course, because I would rather poke sharp sticks in my eye than do taxes.
Tax season, like grieving, has stages that people go through.
First is denial. By ignoring taxes, we hope they will go away.
Then guilt. We know we should be doing them, but look! Prospectors is on.
Then anxiety as the inevitability begins to set in.
Then anger.
Then resignation.
In the end, whether it be grief or “a compulsory contribution to state revenue”, it all boils down to death and taxes, famously known as the only two things that we cannot get out of.
So we might as well accept our fates and get to it. And I will.
But it may take me a while to open that box.