Reflections on the old year, and hopes for the new

It's hard to know where to start in terms of summing up the year 2020. It's been a tough year for many people due to the pandemic, which shows no sign of abating any time soon. So we place our collective hope in the vaccines that have been developed to tackle the corona virus. We cross our fingers, pray, and hope for the best. A lot of lives have been lost to covid-19, lives that might have been saved had a vaccine existed at the start of the year. Lives that might have been saved if some countries had taken the pandemic seriously from the start, encouraged their citizens to wear masks and to socially distance, and to think of the common good. The latter is anathema to many people, who equate the common good with socialism, and God knows they don't want any part of that. Their individual rights and freedoms come first, before all else. If everyone thought like they do, there would be no vaccines, no hospitals, no healthcare system. Why should there be? After all, individualists should be able to treat and take care of themselves without any interference or help from medical professionals or the government. But trying to get them to see reason is tantamount to hitting your head against a brick wall continually. 

I am hoping that 2021 brings an end to the stupidity I've seen around me, read about, and watched on tv in 2020--stupid behavior and stupid statements on the part of selfish people and politicians. I'm hoping for a return to intelligence and rational thinking. But you never know. Those things are not valued in society as they once were. Intelligence is suspect, and rational thinking is reserved for nerds and academics. It's how you feel about things that counts. 'I don't feel like doing this or that'. So people don't do this or that, but sometimes doing those things would be beneficial for society as a whole. Maybe doing those things would bring a quicker end to the pandemic. 

I've learned that there are people I thought I knew, that I absolutely do not know, and at this point in time, I don't think I want to get to know who they are now. Diehard Trump supporters who believe he was sent by God, anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theorists. Some people I know are one or more of these types of people. I would never have thought that they would go down those paths. But they have, and it's worrisome, especially the anti-vaccine path. I wonder if any of them have googled smallpox and taken a long hard look at the images of people with smallpox. Smallpox was eradicated due to a vaccine. But I'm guessing that the anti-vaxxers have another explanation for why it was eradicated, and of course their explanation is the correct one. Anti-vaxxers are anti-science, and I don't trust those types of people. Science cannot save every situation, but without it, we would have been doomed a long time ago.

We live in a strange world now, one where it is possible to re-write history and ignore facts/actual data on a whim. It is dangerous to wipe out history, to pretend that the bad things in history never happened. Bad things did happen, and history is there to record them so that we can learn from them and prevent them from happening again. That is the point of history. We cannot just focus on the good things, because we do not, never have, and never will, live in a utopia. No society on earth is perfect, and never will be, despite what some politicians say and believe. America is not the greatest country on earth; it's a fortunate country, yes, but many other countries are also. If you live in one of these countries, your life will likely be comfortable and rewarding because you will not lack for most material things. But people should remember that some of life is sheer luck; we did not choose to be born in these countries, any more than others chose to be born in less fortunate countries. Ergo, the fortunate countries must share their bounty with the less fortunate countries; that is only fair. But that is my opinion. Thankfully, many enlightened people think the same way. They are not interested in hoarding wealth or denying others the chance for a better life. 

My hope for 2021 is that life returns to normal, to our definition of it--to be able to travel, get together, hug each other, eat out, go to the movies, go to the theater--in short, enjoy life again without thinking of the risks and dangers of doing so. Life will return to normal at some point, but we will have learned how to deal with life when it is not normal. And perhaps that is a good thing, since I feel certain that the world is not done with pandemics. Many health professionals think the same thing. So if we have learned something from this pandemic, it is the necessity of being prepared for as many eventualities as we can. We cannot afford to be taken by surprise again. The next pandemic could be more lethal than this one. I hope not, but there is no way to know for sure. Best to be prepared. 

What I want for Christmas

• A different and better diagnosis for a dear friend whose doctor gave her a depressing diagnosis in a manner totally unbecoming for a professional—cavalier and unfeeling. My new year’s wish for her doctor? That he spend some time in her shoes to see how it feels to suffer the anxiety of having to wait until the middle of January to hear if he was mistaken or not, because he is no expert and should never have given her any sort of diagnosis in the first place
• To find a way to be with my family and friends in the States so that I don’t have to wait until retirement to see them more
• Better lives for those close to me who have problems maintaining their standards of living, due to circumstances beyond their control
• To find a way to do what I love so that I can quit what I no longer love. I wish that for those I love as well
• That we find and restore balance to our daily lives: work is work, home is home. We need both and we need to find time for both. Work should not usurp the role of family and friends
• That the workplace does not continue to be the church where we worship. That we find our way back to our real churches and turn our backs on the worship of money, greed and competition
• That ‘God grant me the serenity to accept what I cannot change, the courage to change what should be changed, and wisdom to know the difference’ (Serenity Prayer)

Hopes and wishes for the New Year

Some hopes and wishes for the New Year......

·         That I reclaim what was once a very important virtue to me—patience. I seem to have lost it during the past few years. Or perhaps I cast it to the wayside without really being aware of doing so.

·         Ditto for faith. Having trust and faith in the present and the future, that all unfolds as it should, in time. Faith and patience seem to go together. I had more of both when I was younger, during times that were much more difficult than any present situation.

·        Hope too. Without it, life seems rather meaningless and bleak.

·         That people drop their envy and learn to compliment others when a compliment is warranted. This doesn’t mean faking it or being superficial. It means being honest. When someone else has succeeded, achieved something you haven’t, or simply looks nice one day, for God’s sake, be happy for them. Let them know that you are happy for them. It doesn’t diminish who you are. It may be your turn the next time. And then you’d like others to be happy for your success too.

·         That the focus on competition in all things is de-emphasized. It is important to know and recognize that all individuals have different talents and strengths. It is not necessary for an artist to compete with a scientist for the same goal. Ditto for a scientist and an accountant, or a scientist and a politician. God bless the differences between us. I don’t want to be an accountant, but I have a lot of respect for what they do. Please respect my profession (science) and stop asking us to be something we’re not at work (accountants, secretaries, administrators, delivery people, media wizards and IT-experts).

·         That this culture learns for good that differences are good. All men are not created the same. We are different from everyone else already at birth. That is what the word individual denotes. We may enjoy the same access to opportunities, education, healthcare and the like, but we are not the same and we will not use these opportunities in the same way as everyone else. Can we for once acknowledge our differences and even celebrate them?

·         And while I’m at it, I hope that my workplace learns to respect its employees. They certainly haven’t done a very good job of this up until now (if ever). Perhaps 2012 will be the first year that employees in my workplace feel valued and useful. That would be an amazing thing and go a long way toward creating the kind of loyalty and dedication my workplace desperately seeks.

·         That politicians and administrators stop trying to regulate every little aspect of our lives. A lot of us feel micro-managed, at work and outside of work. Can we stop now please? Can we be treated as the adults we are and not reduced to the level of kindergarten children in all things? I know how to read, write, and interpret what I read, make my own decisions, and take care of my health. Ditto for so many other things. I’m a skeptic by nature, so leave me alone. Don’t force your opinions down my throat. I don’t need a hundred ‘besserwissers’ (German for know-it-alls) to lecture me every time I decide to do something that falls outside of the A4 (conforms to same standard) lifestyle that defines a lot of Scandinavia. There’s always someone to tell me ‘you don’t want to do that’ (yes, I do) or ‘why do you want to do that, it’s not going to work’ (because I want to and I didn’t ask for your opinion or your advice, and yes, I think it’s going to work).

·         That skepticism of the media increases, that we become warier of what we let into our minds and hearts, and that we learn to recognize evil for what it really is and how it manifests itself in modern society—as banality, hopelessness, indifference, apathy, need to control, need to dominate, need to destroy—in short, a type of negativity that is soul-destroying.

·         That we work for justice, fairness, honesty and compassion to counteract the negativity around us. All we need to do is to start in our personal lives—treat the people around us fairly, honestly and with compassion. And they will do the same with those around them. And so on.

·         That we ‘light a candle rather than curse the darkness’. Let’s light a thousand, even a million candles.