We are in the last two weeks of 2021 and, true to form, the fact that two holidays are falling on consecutive Saturdays means the world will be in chaos while time marches the year to its inevitable end. Since I normally post on Saturdays, you may not see the next two entries as expected, but something will be here, early or late, because my resolution was to keep posting, and so I shall.
It seems that 2021 is not much different when compared to 2020, since we had the same issues to deal with. The world remains perpetually sick (both in mind and body), politics are disheveled beyond belief, commerce is barely existent, weather raised its mighty hands and wiped out large swaths of populations, and entertainment and sports seem to have become a fool’s gallery of mishaps.
Regardless of your age, it sucks to be alive right now. But also it’s a good thing to be living through this.
Apathy is good in small doses, but spending too long in fluctuating extremes like stress or anger can also lead to a type of detachment from the world around us. The mental barriers we put into place to help us deal with adversity upgrade from wire fences to concrete walls topped with barbed wire. Meanwhile, the situations remain and continue to plague us, and we can’t stay cocooned in denial forever, nor can we just ignore what has to be done.
These past two years have been the “Karen Years,” in which women (and occasionally their male counterpart Darrens) became social media fodder as cell phone users recorded footage of their psychological pots boiling over in public. Sometimes the cause of the upset was little or nothing, such as a lengthier wait for a fast-food order. Occasionally the issue was with covering one’s face in public places. In extreme cases, the subjects were so overstimulated by the state of affairs that they would fake injuries on camera, sending themselves sprawling onto the ground and claiming assault while the camera caught the obvious truth to the contrary.
We have also dealt with another switch in political power, as one party went out and the other came in to repair damages in some areas while making new damage in others. Whichever way one voted, the complaints are the same on both sides, but they are simply coming from the opposing side of whoever happened to be in office because the old administration will always be wrong and the new one always right (or the old right and the new wrong).
Everyday merchandise, along with holiday special orders, became stranded aboard container ships and in cargo holding facilities. Store shelves looked barren, and what was in stock rose in price. Meanwhile, a generation has learned the meaning of the word “quit,” and they are doing so in large numbers, while big companies are restructuring and laying off or shutting down. Others are leaving the community structure of the office in the big city or urban campus, and permanently working from home, developing new habits such as only dressing from the waist up for Zoom meetings.
Our sense of self is being challenged, not just for how we look, but for how we may have expressed ourselves at any time in our past. Our opinions from twenty years ago may plague us now if somebody remembers them. In the looks department, models are now accepted with perceived physical imperfections or even missing body parts, which is a step toward allowing good people to exist in spite of their flaws. Total perfection, unfortunately, remains impossible to find, though some may try to define or create that ideal for the world to follow.
Nature has produced supreme storm events and decimated populations already dealing with unchecked disease or territorial strife. Tornadoes, volcanic eruptions, severe winter and rain storms caused power outages and shutdowns and taken scores of lives.
Yet you and I are here to record and read about them.
We’re the resilient ones. Each of us who survives these adversities will gain the power within our souls to regroup when the bad things come to an end and bring new and good things into the world. It has been this way since humans first began coexisting on the planet, and it won’t end because a new measurement of time on a calendar says it’s a new year.
Take a deep breath, and know that these problems shall pass, maybe not on December 31st, but someday soon. The second after that is our gift to do with as we choose. Choose wisely.
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