As we all know 20-20 is a reference to perfect vision and as we are all experiencing, 2020 continues to open our eyes to many things we were blind to before or just refused to recognize. The lists we could compose of what’s been revealed in the last 11 months may not fill up pages but the weight of those things on the list qualifies as obese. Yep, 2020 has been fat with revelation. The fragility of so many things we rely on for daily life has been the most revealing for me and also the extent to which I’d taken those things for granted.
Things like the bridge of democracy, which helps us traverse over chasms of chaos, it’s cables thin and weak and buckling under the pressure of the weight of selfishness and greed using technology to drive truckloads of lies and deceit straight into the hearts of neighbors and friends.
The highways, streets and roads of teamwork that serve as veins coursing through the body of America connecting our neighborhoods, cities and towns, the organs of a unified system which keeps us vibrant and strong and in harmony are clogged with the traffic of hate, derision, cruelty and malice making us feeble, weak and disjointed.
Human touch has been replaced with a shared understanding of the danger of it and a shared longing for it. Our castle bodies encircled with malfunctioning moats protecting us or not from an invisible enemy and the trojan horses which carry it that knowingly and unknowingly enter our personal space.
An economic engine split up and fueled by high octane premium in one part and regular unleaded in another each delivering their own efficiencies with broad disparities between them. The market setting records as unemployment rates hover near calamitous highs. Wealth for some accumulating at a dizzying pace as cars in food bank lines multiply exponentially like compound interest gone wild.
Yet, somehow, I remain hopeful and grateful.
I think of my parents and I am thankful for their example of hope in even the most challenging times.
I think of my brothers and sisters who have modeled what it means to make the best with what you’ve got.
I think of my partner who has kept his job and navigates his interactions with the public while the industry I work in has all but ceased to exist.
I think of my friends, all of which are challenged to some degree and who are still forging ahead with the hope of better to come.
I think of many around the world who do not have any of the “luxuries” I have like clean water accessible with the turn of a faucet, a multi-blanketed bed to sleep in nightly inside of a house that I can warm-up or cool down to my liking, a refrigerator, freezer and cupboards holding meals that could last into next week, a closet and dresser drawers with clean clothes, washed and dried with the push of a button, that I can wear as I go nowhere, an internet connection and phone service, and relative peace in my surroundings where I have time and focus to write these thoughts down with the hope that anyone with relative peace in their surroundings and the time to focus and read these thoughts will drop to their knees and give thanks too!