2020—The Year of Crazy

The other night on Facebook, I mentioned that I was going to write in my blog. I did get started, only to nod off and, as only I can, managed to hit the DELETE button in the process. All of my work was sent to the cyber dump. But it gave me a chance to sleep on a few ideas for a replacement post to add to this ongoing saga of my existence. Upon getting a fairly reasonable amount of sleep and a second wind, I got off to a fresh start. Here's what spent the night brewing in my mind.

As time has gone on, it appears that the year 2020 has turned out like what happens when you serve a plate of food to someone and it slips out of their hands, falling to the floor face down, smashing into many pieces with food splattered all over. There's quite a mess to clean up, and it's going to take awhile.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been at the top of the news for most of the year. 2020 is also a presidential election year. Those two things have kept us jumping. Thanks to at least one incident (in Minneapolis, black suspect George Floyd was held down on the ground by a white police officer's knee on his neck, eventually killing Floyd) touched off racial tension with protests and violence in many areas around the country. In my personal life, there are some rather ungood things going on that I need to deal with. (I'll spare you the details now, but may treat you to a future post about everything once I've untangled and laughed about all of it. Or cried. You never know.)

All of these things make you wonder "what in the world is going on?" as well as "what are we going to do about it/what CAN we do about it?" As I often say, "All we can do is the best we can do." Perhaps picking up the pieces we can handle is a good start. If we grab a friend or six, we can pick up the bigger pieces. There's strength in numbers. While we can't force anyone to feel a certain way about an issue, we can influence some people to at least have some tolerance toward those whose opinions are different. In some cases, the old "agree to disagree" policy will have to do regarding the issue.

Here in my blog, all I can offer is my two cents' worth, so bear with me or go fetch a bear to chase me into the woods. But you'd better not catch a cub. Otherwise you'll have mama bear on your tail, and you won't like that...

On the racial issue, when the slogan, "Black Lives Matter" went viral, my initial response to it was, "All Lives Matter." After some thought and discussion with various friends who "got it," I came to understand the reason and need to single out black lives here. While every life does matter, the attitude taken toward black people seems to be that they're somehow "expendable." Several hundred years of slavery in certain U.S. states was reprehensible. Sure, it might have been "just the way it was" at that time, but wrong nonetheless. Imagine if we treated everyone with kindness and respect regardless of what their race is. Sure, we have our Karens and Kens out there, but they come in all colors, shapes and sizes.

But under NO circumstances is crime and violence acceptable. Peaceful protests are fine, but as soon as protesters start blocking traffic, throwing things, etc., the protest is no longer peaceful.

COVID-19 has kept most people at home and has caused many businesses to shut down for good (RIP Souplantation 😔). It's perfectly understandable that we want our lives back to normal, but as long as we flout what really amounts to common courtesy toward others in terms of doing what the CDC says, normal won't be back very soon. Masks are a pain, and wet hands make your fingers all wrinkly, but it's all temporary. The more everyone does their part, the temporarier it will be.

So there you go. A bit long and rambly, but just a few thoughts with good intentions straight from my heart and soul.