A Personal 2020 In Review

Like many folks, my wife and I sent out a bunch of holiday cards. This year, instead of inserting the traditional form letter, we elected to actually (gasp) write in the cards. Like, with a pen. And, each card was different. In these cards, I remember jokes about how weird 2020 has been, but one summed it up nicely: "Merry WTF!" I think the other shoe of this 2020 madness has yet to drop - as the economic fallout will likely be. . . "unprecedented."

In another card I joked about how the recipient could believe COVID is real, or believe it was a front used to subjugate all humanity to mind control injections manufactured by the space aliens on the dark side of the moon. No matter what my friend believed, they would still be my friend. I contemplated buying them the "I miss precedented times" t-shirt. It's the thought that counts.

The cosmic take on 2020 ends up being just magnificently strange. It is a combination of people coming together in various clusters of group think , and yet as these groups emerge . . . some of the subject matter is highly polarizing. COVID, BLM, the Presidential campaign, just to name a few. On COVID, some folks are freaked out, others could care less. BLM, some folks feel it is specific to one underserved populace of Americans and others see it as a call for equality and fairness across all boundaries (ALM). I've watched countless LinkedIn postings collapse into name calling and other grade school skullduggery based on one person's view of politics and the elections. Maybe it is less "Merry WTF" and more "Year of the LOA Frag Grenade."

Personally, the year has been isolated, but fantastic. Even through all this madness, my career moved forward, everyone I know who has contracted COVID has emerged victorious without any complications (and this includes family members in their late 70s, 80s and 90s), I've made positive progress on a bunch of personal goals, from the infamous "honey-do" list, to various side hustles, creative projects, and even doing a "tent-cation".

Yes, other people got the bright idea to rent all the RVs this summer. Good for them. My wife and I decided, fine, we will get a tent and go hang out in nature. That worked well until the thunder, lightning and torrential downpour. In the tent's defense, it would've stayed a LOT more dry if we didn't have the screens open. But, it was an adventure, just like 2020 - there was thunder, lightning, flooding, biting flies, mosquitos, etc. and we still had a great time.

Politically, this has been another slice of crazy for me. People asked who I voted for. . . I told them, "I voted for the rich, white guy who said they were going to make things better and called the other guy a big fat liar." The sad truth is, I haven't liked a candidate since Ross Perot. There's some carbon dating. Think about it, of ALL the people in the United States of America who are what "over 35 and native born" . . . these two cats are the BEST of the BEST? Are they? REALLY? I highly doubt our current promotional mechanisms are bubbling the best minds to the top of our various corporate or political systems. Nothing against the folks I voted for, but out of 50,000,000 potentials (or whatever that number might be) I am betting there were better options.

The other sad truth is, people keep thinking the President is going to fix the government. The President, blessed though s/he might be, is literally "one in a million." One person in a million employees, trying to run the thickest, most convoluted organization probably on the planet. Mr/s. President, good luck with all of the that. If the CEO is the ONLY person involved in fixing an organization, that's flawed going in, even for a small business. Let's head-nod the entire broken hero-concept that drives our hierarchical constructs and move on. I wish whoever is in that hot seat all the best, and as a citizen of the greatest political show on earth, props to all the people - from poll volunteers to our highest elected and appointed officials - engaging civic duty/process at any level in the hopes of shaping a brighter future for our country is hard work, and I appreciate your efforts, whether I agree with you or not! But nobody fixes government in a vacuum - it takes concentrated team efforts.

There we have it, then. 2020: the cosmic, the personal and I even carved out a niche for some politics. Cosmically, it was the year of the LOA frag grenade, where despite our best manifestations, some people near and dear to us got fragged, and I feel there is a huge tension going into 2021 that I hope we are able to resolve diplomatically. Personally, it was another amazing trip around the Sun - I've continued to be schooled and blessed by the adventure each and every day. Finally, politically, we can't look to one person to be a savior - we all have a hand in shaping the destiny of our Republic.

All the best to everyone on this planet - from the "bottom billion" to the "illuminati." Until someone gets hyperdrive working, we all still share this same rock. But it is an mind-blowingly amazing rock. We are all living, realizing liberty and finding happiness in our own way (whether it is baked into the fabric of our government or not). Regardless of which strata we find ourselves, we are all still human, and the rock we inhabit worked perfectly before we rose to the top of the food chain, so. . . more importantly than anything else, let's not eff that up. To 2021, raising the quality of life for all life, and to hyperdrive!