Today is Wednesday, November
18, 2020, the 323rd day of this year to forget.
Just think about it … we still have 43 days left to this year … can anything more happen than we have already experienced?
We have this horrid coronavirus, which is impacting everything, even if we never directly caught it.
On a personal level, I lost my father this year, and my son lost his job, and I lost all hope in finding a job after so many months of trying.
But I guess there is always hope.
It looks like we are going to have a vaccine for this horrid pandemic we are in really soon, maybe a couple of different vaccines.
On a personal level, I retired—really semi-retired—and I did find a remote job that I can sink my teeth into ... but only because the right person--a former Pentagon official--knew me and knew my work and knew what I could bring to the table.
My son sat at home on furlough waiting for a call that never came, and through perseverance—and most importantly, because we knew the right person—he just started another job, albeit a seasonal one.
And to sum up the whole ball of wax, we had the presidential election, and whatever side you are on, it was a very messy one, and continues to be.
We will have a new commander in chief, and let’s see how he and his team manage a country that is split pretty much in half on so many issues that we are a literal Twix bar of a country right now.
Personally, I don’t think that 2021 is going to be any better than 2020 was, and perhaps it might be worse if these vaccines don’t work.
At least we had two or two and a half months of normalcy in 2020, until the pandemic hit us.
2021 will begin with the pandemic firmly in place, with numbers spiking already all over the place. Our legislators said it is because we haven’t been totally good about handling it, but I say that we have generally been, but the virus is so strong and catchable that it was going to spread anyway, whether we watched it like a hawk or not.
Of course, it doesn’t help when people skirt the virus, don’t take proper precautions, and act like it doesn’t exist.
And it doesn’t help when some of our legislators tell us to do one thing, and then do just the opposite in their own lives, as Governor Newsom did in California.
Can 2021 actually be an improvement over 2020?
It is hard to say.
From my perspective, the entire year hinges on the vaccine.
If we have at least one viable vaccine that people can take to at least mitigate the virus—which we pretty much have for the flu, which works maybe 50 percent of the time to thwart that virus but the vaccine at least lessens the symptoms and the suffering—that would be a good start.
Are we going to eradicate the disease> Probably not, but we can certainly fight it, and put it in the rear view mirror.
Case in point is the measles vaccine. For most of us, it has taken that disease out of the life equation, but people still get it, the illness is still around, but at least it is preventable.
Let’s hope whatever vaccine our scientists come up with at least makes the disease preventable.
But even with that, will life return back to what we considered to be normal just a year ago?
I doubt it.
Things have changed so much—at home, in the workplace, and in the general population—that anyone who thinks we are going to go back to the way it was is kidding himself.
Social distancing for social creatures isn’t going away anytime soon, and the simple greeting of a handshake may be dead in the water forever.
More and more of us are working at home, so businesses will be different than they were in the past. You might work for a company for years and never have to go into the office. You might not even know who your boss is.
And hiring practices will certainly be different, as everything will be done remotely.
And if you are over 50 and out of work, I feel really sorry for you.
Those are just some of the changes that I can think of that are not going to go away with a vaccine.
Will you ever be able to do anything on a whim anymore, like go to the movies, go to a restaurant, go to a show?
Will you ever be able to greet anyone again like you have in the past?
The virus has created a civilization of paranoia, and it has ruined the human experience.
We will have a generation that has no idea about any social norms, other than distance is the way to go.
Shared experiences? There will be no more of that, or at least they will be minimized.
Goodness, I am so happy I grew up when I did, when we never thought of such things.
We were together, on top of each other, and acted like human beings are supposed to act toward one another.
Today?
The human experience is so different—and was so different even before the pandemic hit us—that it does not resemble the bulk of my lifetime in any way, shape or form.
God help us, and God help us recover from this scourge that has threatened our existence.
Not a happy entry today, but I am just so sick and tired of the way we have to go about our business today that I guess it was time for me to vent a wee bit.
More happiness tomorrow … I promise.
Just think about it … we still have 43 days left to this year … can anything more happen than we have already experienced?
We have this horrid coronavirus, which is impacting everything, even if we never directly caught it.
On a personal level, I lost my father this year, and my son lost his job, and I lost all hope in finding a job after so many months of trying.
But I guess there is always hope.
It looks like we are going to have a vaccine for this horrid pandemic we are in really soon, maybe a couple of different vaccines.
On a personal level, I retired—really semi-retired—and I did find a remote job that I can sink my teeth into ... but only because the right person--a former Pentagon official--knew me and knew my work and knew what I could bring to the table.
My son sat at home on furlough waiting for a call that never came, and through perseverance—and most importantly, because we knew the right person—he just started another job, albeit a seasonal one.
And to sum up the whole ball of wax, we had the presidential election, and whatever side you are on, it was a very messy one, and continues to be.
We will have a new commander in chief, and let’s see how he and his team manage a country that is split pretty much in half on so many issues that we are a literal Twix bar of a country right now.
Personally, I don’t think that 2021 is going to be any better than 2020 was, and perhaps it might be worse if these vaccines don’t work.
At least we had two or two and a half months of normalcy in 2020, until the pandemic hit us.
2021 will begin with the pandemic firmly in place, with numbers spiking already all over the place. Our legislators said it is because we haven’t been totally good about handling it, but I say that we have generally been, but the virus is so strong and catchable that it was going to spread anyway, whether we watched it like a hawk or not.
Of course, it doesn’t help when people skirt the virus, don’t take proper precautions, and act like it doesn’t exist.
And it doesn’t help when some of our legislators tell us to do one thing, and then do just the opposite in their own lives, as Governor Newsom did in California.
Can 2021 actually be an improvement over 2020?
It is hard to say.
From my perspective, the entire year hinges on the vaccine.
If we have at least one viable vaccine that people can take to at least mitigate the virus—which we pretty much have for the flu, which works maybe 50 percent of the time to thwart that virus but the vaccine at least lessens the symptoms and the suffering—that would be a good start.
Are we going to eradicate the disease> Probably not, but we can certainly fight it, and put it in the rear view mirror.
Case in point is the measles vaccine. For most of us, it has taken that disease out of the life equation, but people still get it, the illness is still around, but at least it is preventable.
Let’s hope whatever vaccine our scientists come up with at least makes the disease preventable.
But even with that, will life return back to what we considered to be normal just a year ago?
I doubt it.
Things have changed so much—at home, in the workplace, and in the general population—that anyone who thinks we are going to go back to the way it was is kidding himself.
Social distancing for social creatures isn’t going away anytime soon, and the simple greeting of a handshake may be dead in the water forever.
More and more of us are working at home, so businesses will be different than they were in the past. You might work for a company for years and never have to go into the office. You might not even know who your boss is.
And hiring practices will certainly be different, as everything will be done remotely.
And if you are over 50 and out of work, I feel really sorry for you.
Those are just some of the changes that I can think of that are not going to go away with a vaccine.
Will you ever be able to do anything on a whim anymore, like go to the movies, go to a restaurant, go to a show?
Will you ever be able to greet anyone again like you have in the past?
The virus has created a civilization of paranoia, and it has ruined the human experience.
We will have a generation that has no idea about any social norms, other than distance is the way to go.
Shared experiences? There will be no more of that, or at least they will be minimized.
Goodness, I am so happy I grew up when I did, when we never thought of such things.
We were together, on top of each other, and acted like human beings are supposed to act toward one another.
Today?
The human experience is so different—and was so different even before the pandemic hit us—that it does not resemble the bulk of my lifetime in any way, shape or form.
God help us, and God help us recover from this scourge that has threatened our existence.
Not a happy entry today, but I am just so sick and tired of the way we have to go about our business today that I guess it was time for me to vent a wee bit.
More happiness tomorrow … I promise.
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