Years ago, when I was a much more active blogger here, I'd always do a year in review post. After these last twelve months, even though I'm stuck in bed sick on New Year's Eve, I had a few thoughts to share.
We all began the new year (and new decade) with preconceived assumptions of what to generally expect in life, plus plans for the year ahead like vacations, work goals, personal health goals, paying off a bill, buying a car, whatever it may have been.
When I saw the story of Li Wenliang just into the New Year, I had no idea that what he was trying to warn his colleagues about (and was later forced to recant by his friendly government) was about to change everything.
For me, March 11, 2020 ranks with September 11, 2001. This is not a comparison. This is an acknowledgement that the events of that late winter Wednesday made a profound change on our families, communities, our country and our world.
I called a Randolph-Macon women's lacrosse victory online that evening, then stopped at the radio station to work on a few things. I brought up Tweetdeck, only to find the NBA announcing the suspension of their season.
Their season. They simply hit pause.
Suddenly, the ripple effect in sports, which play a big role in my life, became a tidal wave. It was the weekend of college basketball conference tournaments, some that were already underway. That next day, Thursday March 12, one by one, even as teams such as VCU were out warming up to play their first game, conferences opted to cancel the tournaments and send everyone home.
We all know the rest of the story. It's been 296 days since I did play-by-play on any sporting event. It's been close to that much time since I last filed a newspaper article. In this time, I've learned a few things, and while some feelings were cemented, others were adjusted.
1) I wish so badly that, when I had the chance, I would have talked in depth with people I knew who had firsthand knowledge of the year 1918. There was a sweet lady in the church I pastored in Prince George County, in her 80s, her mind sharp as a tack. What I would give to sit down with her for one afternoon and just talk about her childhood, about her parents and their stories about the pandemic of 102 years ago. The information would have been priceless.
2) My generation (I guess Generation X, having been born in 1967), and the generation of my children, can now begin to understand, first hand, life in truly difficult times. Even at 53 years old, I had never experienced a year like 1918, with the world at war and millions dying. Or 1942, as we sent our men by the hundreds of thousands to Africa, Europe and the Pacific, and we truly wondered if Nazi Germany would show up on our shores. Or 1930 and 1931, as the Great Depression tightened its grip on America, and people were literally starving to death.
3) In those times, there were no phones, no apps, no DoorDash for safe delivery of your chicken wings. The sale of cars plummeted due to the Depression. I think both generations I referenced earlier would have had a very, very difficult time handling COVID-19 in an age where you still churned your own butter, milked the cow, and walked to market, if it was open.
4) While certainly disappointed that I had no football to broadcast this past fall, I mourned its loss rather quickly. When put into proper perspective, I'm much more concerned about the thousands of lives at risk today, the 340,000 plus that have died from COVID-19 and their families. Bickering about whether a sport should be played seems unbelievably shallow to me.
5) My one political point: I love the Chinese people. I hate the Chinese Communist Party with a passion. They are the cause of this pandemic. It began there. They attempted to cover it up, silence the whistleblower(s), continue with celebrations in January all the while knowing what was happening. And if you believe the numbers they report to the WHO, I've got a bridge over water in the Sahara Desert to sell you. I heard someone say, just after the fall of the Soviet Union nearly three decades ago, "You can only trust Communists....to be Communists." I've never been more concerned about our national sovereignty than I am today, and I lived through the last 20 plus years of the Cold War.
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As we enter 2021, I'm thankful that my wife has been able to work from home since March 18th without skipping a beat. I'm thankful that I've become her Starbucks errand boy, and that doing the dishes, feeding the dogs, and doing the laundry was already on my list anyway. I just had more time, especially at night, to do them.
I'm thankful my daughter was able to find a way to do her practicum inside a classroom this fall, continuing her online studies with a 4.0, on track to get her Master's Degree in May. I'm thankful my son's case of COVID-19 over the summer was very, very mild. His worst symptom was a nagging cough.
I'm thankful for my beautiful two grandchildren and for their health especially. I'm thankful, too, that they won't remember 2020. :)
To all of you, my wish for you is a safe, happy and healthy 2021. Let's all take a deep breath, love one another, look out for one another, agree to disagree and keep friendships alive rather than take potshots at people behind a laptop screen and block them from social media.
You see, I don't have to agree with you on something to love you. My friends range from ministers to a former porn star. Love people where they are for who they are. I know a guy who presented us that example, oh, about 2,000 years ago. He was a carpenter....by trade.
