Ottawa firefighters extricate one person following Barrhaven collision on Christmas Day

As I watched team members add to the running ledger of their collective joys for 2025, it occurred to me that we might be looking in the wrong place if we want to reclaim our humanity from machines. Perhaps a more uncontroversial and profound Turing test is the mystery of the absolute arbitrariness of what makes us happy. Looking over this year’s list, patterns emerge—trips, new friends—but much more here inheres in the mundane, lowercase, sense-activating thinginess of life: walking through clouds of butterflies, eating candy alone, homemade stew, wearing pink glitter, cold clementines...