There will no doubt be many retrospectives written about the year that was 2020. It was a tough year for most, a good year for many, and generally speaking a very interesting year. Which reminds me of the the old curse - may you live in interesting times.
Because, you see - interesting does not always mean good. It does not mean better. It does not mean happy. It just means interesting. So to highlight just how interesting things were, I offer the following post about things that went on. Or didn’t went on. It’s not intended to be chronological, necessarily, or even accurate. It’s just some of my observations....
Let’s start with the pandemic. Pandemic is a word that was previously the realm of science fiction and/or horror writers (The Stand comes to mind). Late 2019 a disease was identified in Wuhan, China, which is a place I’d never heard of before. Apparently coming from some kind of exotic meat market, this strain of Coronavirus was something that the world hadn’t seen before. Massively contagious and surprisingly lethal, this disease soon spread all over the world. As of this writing, 85 million people worldwide have tested positive for the disease, including some 20 million in the US. Well over 300,000 Americans have died in the past 10 months, nearly 1,000 per day. It’s a disease that is scary and debilitating, and the impact on our world has been dramatic. Since March when emergency declarations started to come out, we have seen shortages in toilet paper - not an actual shortage, as such, but because everyone thought there would be a lack, they went and impulse bought lots and lots of extra TP, and that made the shelves look bare, which caused others to panic buy even more, further exacerbating the issue. There was no actual issue with the supply but because everyone was scared, there was a definite scarcity for a while. Weird. Summer events were cancelled or held online - including things like a virtual 5K, where people just ran a 5K on their own and reported their times in to the race organizers. I myself recorded my best ever 5K time and I didn’t even run! Just kidding. These amended and mostly online activities lasted all year, making us familiar with things like Zoom meetings (online virtual meetings held over the computer) and church, social distancing (which mostly meant that we were uncomfortable being in close proximity to people that we didn’t know - honestly not a big change for me!) and wearing face masks everywhere. It’s been weird economically - Ellie and I went to dinner for a date in March and I felt prompted to give a larger than normal tip because I felt that things for restaurants and restaurant workers would be difficult. I was right, and I’m sad to think that my little gesture didn’t help much, because restaurants closed for several weeks. Schools also closed. We kept City Hall open, but it was closed to just walk-in people. The repercussions of all the closures continue to ripple through our world, with no apparent end in sight. It’s weird, too, though, because the essential underpinnings of our world aren’t that different - people still want to eat and go play and do things around the house... But travel has been hit hard - we had to cancel a trip to Houston this past fall...
Then there were a couple of natural disasters - in March there was an earthquake in the Salt Lake valley that we felt all the way up here. That was a scary day, with strange rumors going around about an even greater earthquake that was predicted for later that same morning... Of course it wasn’t true, but it was amazing how quickly that rumor got spread around and how many people believed it. Then in September there was a huge windstorm that blew down trees and caused problems for people all over our region. The clean up for that lasted several weeks, Not impacting us directly here, there was a record number of hurricanes in the Atlantic this season, and wildfires in California which did spread their smoke all over the West this summer.
We elected a new President this year. Mr Trump was not successful in his bid for reelection, although there are still some very desperate last-ditch efforts that are still working their way through the process. Barring a weird kind of unexpected and probably illegal circumstance, Joe Biden will be our next President. I’m looking forward to see what Mr. Biden can do for the country and I’m cautiously optimistic and hopeful that good things will be able to be brought to pass... I have been interested to see how the country has reacted to the election results - some with relief and others with anger. But the legal objections to the allegations have come and gone and none have been substantiated.
Then, this summer, there were a couple of tragic deaths brought on by racially motivated police actions in a few regions around the country. This brought on riots and scary times for cities across the nation, and many people adopted an anti-police idea, seeking to defund the police. It’s been a divisive thing, one full of the persistent problems we’ve faced as a country and as a society, getting to the roots of questions like what does race mean and how do we achieve substantial justice. It’s not a new fight, but it’s one that has received a good amount of attention and energy this year.
Finally, there have been personal things going on this year. The biggest is that I quit working at Pleasant View and started working for Riverdale City, which happened in early November. Riverdale is a city that is about the same size as Pleasant View, but which has a lot more in the way of revenues and employees. The main draw was the opportunities that working for such a community might mean, and I’m grateful and humbled for the chance to help out there. So far it’s been very good! Diana and I are working towards being sealed in the temple as soon as we can, and I can’t wait for that day.
As I look forward to 2021, it’s hard to imagine a more eventful year than the one we just lived through. But I kind of have the feeling that we’re just seeing the tip of the proverbial iceberg and that the interesting times are only going to accelerate. I hope I can stay faithful, strong, and healthy in the coming months and years.
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