Every year in January, I write about predictions for the coming year –
not my own, but those of the so-called professionals. It seems to me that
if 2020 taught us anything, it’s that we can’t really predict what weird path
the world and our lives are going to take.
Here’s a snippet from my column a year ago, listing some of those
professional predictions for 2020:
~ Attempt on Vladimir
Putin’s life!
~ Kim Jong Un dethroned!
~ Queen Elizabeth resigns!
~ The world will end in
2020!
~ Severe storms in U.S!
Major earthquake on west coast! (standard predictions every year?)
~ Kim Kardashian will be
“on the news and social media because of something over the top that she has
done”
~ Brain implants could
essentially make us telepathic
~ “This election promises
to be a battle royale. It may even be more contentious than the last one. All
sides are in it to win it .... there will be a vicious fight to the finish.”
~ “It’s the year to settle
in for the longer haul, set clear and well-defined goals, do the research, and
create effective systems to achieve the goals”
Aside from the no-brainers (Kim Kardashian doing something “over the
top”; the election “battle royale”), the only one of those predictions that
came to fruition was the last one, telling us to “settle in for the longer
haul”.
It’s kind of ironic, then, that the last several months have
apparently seen a spike in the “crystal ball business”: more people have sought
out fortune tellers and card readers. Given the prognosticators’ track
record for predicting the events of 2020, I find the reliance on them to be
somewhat misguided.
Last January, no one predicted the brand new words and phrases that
would become part of our daily vocabulary: Zoom, contact tracing, social
distancing, quarantini, viral load, doom-scrolling, super-spreader event,
etc.
No one told us to save our money by skipping the purchase of a daily
planner for 2020, or to skip the down payments on cruise vacations.
No one predicted that we’d see one-way signs at the grocery
store, and that we'd be encouraged to
wear a face mask when entering a bank.
No one could have told us a year ago to get ready for shortages of
toilet paper and hand sanitizer, and that we should buy stock in
plexiglass dividers .
No one predicted the booming sales of bicycles, kayaks, gardening
supplies, woodworking tools and even sewing machines, while the sale of dress
pants would (pun intended) drop to the floor. (See story: www.cnn.com/2020/)
No one knew that shaking hands would go out of style and be replaced by
elbow bumps.
No one predicted virtual Thanksgiving dinners, or that the Christmas
gift exchange with my side of the family would be conducted in the parking lot
of an empty factory outlet mall off of I-91 - chosen because it's right off the
highway and equidistant between Randolph and Newington (advantage: no one had
to quarantine for two weeks before and after).
Christmas 2020: Meeting my niece and her
family in Brattleboro to do a five minute trunk-to-trunk gift swap that
looked more like a drug deal. Cheaper than shipping, and it gave us
someplace to go on a Saturday afternoon.
~ ~ ~
None of the fashion pundits alerted us that one of this Christmas
Season’s hot fashion statements would be a holiday themed face mask, and that
even the Danbury Mint would get into the business, selling personalized ones at
four for $99:
~ ~ ~
Well, as Yogi Berra was reported to say, “It's tough to make
predictions, especially about the future.”
So, what are the soothsayers predicting about 2021? A random
search on the Internet suggests that many are seeing a theme of “clarity, light“. It may be only
wishful thinking, but I’ll accept it! (Let’s not get into Nostradamos had
to say – his is always the stuff of nightmares). I do believe that
there is light at the end of the tunnel, but, as one commentator put it,
the tunnel is still quite long.
We’re putting a lot of pressure on 2021 to give us all rainbows and
unicorns, and the Internet is full of jokes and memes pronouncing “good
riddance” to 2020. But we can’t bury 2020 as being all bad......
~ ~ ~
For most of the last 30 or so New Year’s holidays, we’ve hosted the same
dear old friends at our home for a few days of skiing, laughter, wine, and too
many after-dinner cookies. Added to the group on New Year’s Eve are
neighbors who join us for a potluck dinner and for the struggle to stay awake
until midnight.
The in-person New Year’s Eve gathering was of course not possible this
year, so instead we set up a 9 PM Zoom with the dozen or so folks who
would usually be sitting around our dining room table that night.
We went around the Zoom Room and posed the following question for each to
answer: name one GOOD thing about 2020. (We stipulated that the answer
had to be something other than “the good thing is that it’s over”).
The answers ranged from the funny….
“I learned that the three
hardest things to say are (1) I was wrong, (2) I need help, (3) Worcestershire
sauce” (thanks for that one, Jerry!)
“I got to see the
houses and libraries of TV announcers as they broadcasted from home”;
“My husband talked to me
more…..” (and his reply, “But she still didn’t listen”).
…..to the practical, given the restrictions of the pandemic….
“I spent less on
gas”, “I had a vegetable garden for the first time in years”;
“I found that I
actually liked being home more”; “I’ve enjoyed working from home”;
….to happy personal events:
“We welcomed two
grandchildren this year!”
“I reconnected with my
brother as I never have before”;
“I got to visit my father
for the first time in eight years”.
Maybe we’ll always look back on 2020 as what some have called a
“dumpster fire” of a year, but, despite what the fortune tellers claim, we
can’t know what’s ahead. To me, however, those last comments in
particular indicate that no matter what larger world events swirl around us,
it’s the connections we have with each other (though remote right
now) that we’ll remember the most.
Meanwhile, everyone, do all that you can to please stay healthy!!!
New Year's Eve 2020: Let's make sure
we're all together again physically next year!
