Happy New Year and Something Very Different About Dopamine

“An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.” Bill Vaughan

“Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365-page book. Write a good one.” Brad Paisley

Maintaining a Southern Tradition for Starting the New Year: For many past years, I have posted a very similar blog post to these first two paragraphs. Keeping with my deep-South gene pool and following a popular Southern tradition, we eat specific foods on New Year’s Day to guarantee good luck for the rest of the year. Beans and peas are thought to symbolize coins or wealth. Many would choose black-eyed peas and season them with pork or ham; Greens represent folding money. Many would tell you to eat collard greens, mustard greens, or turnip greens; Pork is considered a sign of prosperity in some cultures. Many will cook a ham or pork roast. Cornbread may be regarded as gold since corn kernels represent coins.

The 2026 New Year’s Day supper being prepared by Susan includes a Snake River Farms ham (Boise, Idaho), Hoppin’ John (black-eyed peas with vegetables served over rice), collard greens, and cornbread. I will make the cornbread in a cast-iron skillet (my mother used it for many years, beginning in the 1940s). A simple Southern meal with many wonderful flavors. After the meal, I can officially say, Happy New Year!

“Do not look too far ahead. The day is enough to deal with; tomorrow will be waiting. Gather your strength and courage against your Parkinson’s; always remember, it is your life that you are leading, not this wicked disorder’s doctrine.” Frank C. Church

Dopamine, a New Song by Robyn: We had a wonderful dinner last night at Charlie’s L’Etoile Verte (a French-inspired coastal bistro) on Hilton Head Island. Charlie’s is one of my favorite places for food and drink. Since I drove both to and back from the restaurant on New Year’s Eve, I was not drinking alcohol and actually had two cups of coffee (yes, with caffeine).

Upon getting home, I was wired from both the drive and the coffee, and first turned on the TV to watch college football. Miami beat Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl, which was a lot of fun. From there, we watched the hilarious antics of Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen, co-hosts of CNN’s New Year’s Eve Live TV Broadcast.

As the celebration on Times Square was slowing down, I heard a voice on TV with this announcement (or something similar): “And now singing her hit song Dopamine, here is Robyn.” So the first song I heard in 2026 was titled “Dopamine.”

In 2023, I wrote a blog post entitled: “Parkinson’s: Dopamine (A Neurotransmitter and the Title of Many Songs)” (click here).

Who is Robyn? Wikipedia (click here) tells us that Robyn’s real name is Robin Miriam Carlsson. She is a Swedish singer and songwriter. Her musical style is upbeat, dance-oriented, and she is noted for using “melancholic lyrics.” I think I heard on TV last night that this was her first song in 7 years. She definitely has the upbeat sound, and the description of dopamine is just stellar.

My favorite line in the song is the simple phrase repeated often: “I know it’s just dopamine (let’s go, let’s go).”

I must admit that I had not heard of Robyn before last night. My multiple trips to Sweden to visit my friends Maris and Åsalie consisted of drinking cloudberry liquor and listening to classic rock (well, Maris and I did that). When we included Åsalie, we went crystal shopping outside of Stockholm, went to the Stockholm Archipelago to try windsurfing, and did lots of other fun things. These trips to Sweden were also a while ago, and maybe Robyn wasn’t singing or popular yet?

Here is the first verse followed by the YouTube video:

"I know it's just dopamine
But it feels so real to me
I'm tripping on our chemistry
It's firing up inside of me
I just need to know
That I'm not alone
I know it's just dopamine
But it feels so real to me"

The full lyrics are after the final quote and cover picture credit.

“We spend January 1st walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives…not looking for flaws, but for potential.” Ellen Goodman.

Cover Photo Credit Image by gen hyung lee from Pixabay

Dopamine (Song by Jamie xx and Robyn ‧ 2025)- Complete Song Lyrics
I know it’s just dopamine
But it feels so real to me
I’m tripping on our chemistry
It’s firing up inside of me
I just need to know
That I’m not alone
I know it’s just dopamine
But it feels so real to me

This is one of those ones where you’ve just gotta give in (let’s go)
I can’t hold it, I can’t, I can’t hold it
And when I let go, it’s so easy (my, my), it’s so easy
My, my, it’s so easy, my, my
This is one of those ones where you’ve just gotta give in (let’s go)
I can’t hold it, I can’t, I can’t hold it
And when I let go, it’s so easy (my, my), it’s so easy
My, my, it’s so easy (let’s go)

I know it’s just dopamine (let’s go, let’s go)
But it feels so real to me (let’s go)
I can’t hold it (let’s go), I can’t hold it (let’s go)
I know it’s just dopamine (let’s go)
My (let’s go), my (let’s go)
But it feels so real to me
This is one of those ones where you’ve just gotta give in (let’s go)
I can’t hold it, I can’t, I can’t hold it
And when I let go, it’s so easy (my, my), it’s so easy
My, my, it’s so easy, my, my

This is one of those ones where you’ve just gotta give in (let’s go)
I can’t hold it, I can’t, I can’t hold it
And when I let go, it’s so easy (my, my), it’s so easy
My, my, it’s so easy, my, my

This is one of those ones where you’ve just gotta give in (let’s go)
I can’t hold it, I can’t, I can’t hold it
And when I let go, it’s so easy (my, my), it’s so easy
My, my, it’s so easy, my, my, let’s go
This is one of those ones where

I know it’s just dopamine (let’s go, let’s go)
But it feels so real to me (let’s go)
I know it’s just dopamine (let’s go, let’s go, my, my, my, my)
But it feels so real to me (let’s go, my, my, my, my)
I can’t hold it, I can’t hold it

I can’t hold it, I can’t hold it
I know it’s just dopamine (my, my)
But it feels so real to me

This is one of those ones where you’ve just gotta give in (let’s go)
I can’t hold it, I can’t, I can’t hold it
And when I let go, it’s so easy (my, my), it’s so easy
My, my, it’s so easy, my, my
This is one of those ones where you’ve just gotta give in (let’s go)
I can’t hold it, I can’t, I can’t hold it
And when I let go, it’s so easy (my, my), it’s so easy
My, my, it’s so easy, my, my, let’s go

I
I, I, I
I know it’s just dopamine