Good-bye Covid-19, I am done with you.
I am done with people who won’t wear masks, I am done arguing that the 400,000 dead is such a transformative event that it will haunt this current generation in much the same way that 9-11 or the Vietnam War haunted those generations. It is all true, but I am done with all of it. It is exasperating to have to relearn, almost daily, that we have forgotten that facts are facts. A virus doesn’t care what you or I or anyone else thinks. It obeys its own rules not ours. It will kill you regardless of your political orientation, your religion, or where you live.
I am done having to remind myself that the Covid-19 pandemic has synergized with a bizarre political season and that both of these, like a long hike carrying an 80 pound backpack, have worn me out.
I am tired of being hooked to the news, watching day after day how the politics of the U.S. tears at our souls. I am tired of saying to myself, almost on an hourly basis, that you just can't cure stupid. Tired of it.
I am tired of thinking, once the election is over things will settle down, once the electoral college votes are verified within each state things will simmer down, when the electoral college count in congress validated, things will simmer down.
Beyond securing my own health and the health of my family, there is little that I can do to accelerate the end of the Covid-19 pandemic. I will get vaccinated as soon as the opportunity presents itself, I will wash my hands, I will wear a mask in public, I will socially distance. I will put off seeing my family for another week, or month, or season.
But I am tired of it, even while I recognize that there is little else that I can do.
And when it comes down to creating a unity among my fellow Americans, I can do even less, perhaps nothing at all.
And yes, I am tired of the futility of that, too.
I
Am
Done
With
All
Of
That.
But as of today, January 19, the day before the inauguration of a new presidential administration, there are things that I can do.
And one of them is that I can write, and with that, I here and now pledge to write an article for this page once per week for the rest of the year. Forty-nine articles between now and December 31, 2021.
But here is the deal. I want these articles to be positive and uplifting.
Goodness gracious, we can certainly use a little positivity right about now!
Whether these articles are about Covid-19 and our slow but inexorable return to a new normal, or whether they are about other enviro-medical advancements, by God, they will be positive.
It is a new day. A new political era. The beginning of the end, or at the very least the end of the beginning of the Covid-19 era.
The old problems are still here, still with us. But the dumpster fire of 2020 is behind us, and it is time to resurface and take a clear, deep breath.
Enough!