2021, Good Riddance

 This has been a year.  I had high hopes for this year. I thought the pandemic would be over. I hoped for a peaceful transfer of power in Washington. I thought the divides in this country and in my family would die down. I thought maybe I would go to NYC for New Years' Eve.  Boy, oh boy, was I wrong.

The pandemic isn't over.  I am just as fearful of the virus now as I was a year ago.  I have been jabbed three times, but I am old and fat.  I don't like my odds if I get the virus. So, I mostly stay home. I hope that next year this time, if I am still alive, the virus will be done.

We had a transfer of power, but I will never forget the insurrection.  January 6, 2021 was a day I witnessed an assault on my nation's capitol.  It doesn't feel like it is over. I feel like democracy hangs in the balance.  And maybe I don't see things correctly, maybe I am too fearful, but in my whole life I never thought I would see the country like this.

That leads to the divides in the country and in my family.  We have various political views in my family and in this country.  My family has often held spirited debates on subjects and we often don't agree.  But this year I have heard insults and shaping the subject to devalue or ridicule the other person's belief.  They used to call it setting up a straw man.  Making the "they said" a straw man and then tearing down what "they said" without citing anyone in particular.  I have a family member who spouts his political views on social media to the extent that I am embarrassed to know him. It is hard because I know that this person wants to stay connected to family, he just wants to air his views in an insulting and superior way. I get so angry I want to cut off all contact, but I try to remember that this is a person who needs love and support.  I really don't have to be embarrassed by someone else's actions.

And NYC? I wonder if I will ever get to New York City.  I don't have sights set on New Year's Eve any more.  I would just like to see it once. I would like to travel again. I want to go so many places and do so many things.

So, good riddance to 2021.  I haven't really enjoyed this year.  But, it seems that I have lived through it. 2022 has a good ring to it.