"I can't wait for this year to be over" ~ colleague talking about her daughter's multiple car accidents in the few months of having a driver's licence
"It's so close to the end of the year, we might as well not bother going back to the office this year" ~ another colleague
"This has been a horrible year" ~ colleague talking about isolation and caring for a daughter with breast cancer in the midst of a pandemic
Every conversation I have lately seems to go this way and it bothers me a bit. To start with, we have a full quarter of this year left, things can be done in three months, deciding to maintain the status quo just because the end of the year is within sight seems silly.
I think covid will be with us for a while and if we are talking only about covid safety then working from home for the remainder of the year seems reasonable but to just not even think about change because of an arbitrary line in the sand is a bad idea. If we leave everything til next year then take January to get warmed up (because Australia stops between Christmas day and Australia day) and start organising by February, we've lost almost six months.
The other thing, the one that really concerns me, is that breast cancer, invincible teenage drivers and viruses don't recognise January 1. How many people are waiting for 2021 and hoping that everything will change? I think there are a lot of people holding on by the skin of their teeth, waiting for 2021.
You know how a two hour drive is quite tolerable when you think it's going to be two hours but is absolutely unbearable if you're expecting an hour and delays turn it into two?
I think a lot of people are looking forward to 2021 like the end of a shortish drive but isolation, waves of viral infection, non-functioning fountains, face masks and hand sanitiser will most likely be with us, alongside all the usual and unusual life events, illnesses and difficulties that we experience. It could be like a never ending road trip, in bad weather, with miserable companions.
Will 2021 bring salvation? how will we cope if it doesn't? What great things have you achieved in six months?
All of life is like a never-ending road trip until it does [end], but as long as we bloggers hold up our end of the bargain there won't be miserable companions.
ReplyDeleteOne for all and all for one!
Yes. I don't mean to be negative but I feel like there's a lot of people who are holding out for 2021 and they might get a kick in the teeth
DeleteI've had similar thoughts Kylie. Avoiding hospital and clinic testing as it seems overwhelming and just another boulder into the bag on my back. Or so it seems. I want a grownup in charge of me, to ferry me about and not share any bad news.
ReplyDeleteI feel as if I'm left alone nothing bad can happen.
Some magical thinking there no doubt.
XO
WWW
It's not entirely magical thinking, being left alone should keep you covid free but of course all the other loose canons are still there.
DeleteI do understand that feeling of wanting to just be looked after, it all gets too much at times. Put the bag down and have a cuppa, curl up in bed, even. It's ok
I'm not looking forward to the end of 2020, I'm looking forward to the time when the virus is finally under control, through an effective vaccine, improved medical treatment, mass immunity or whatever, and we can go back to the normal restriction-free life we all took for granted. So many people are saying they've coped fairly well with the lockdown and restrictions so far but now they're fed up and just want their old life back.
ReplyDeletei read that there are two ends to a pandemic: the social end when people decide to get on with life and the medical end when the numbers of infections reduce so i think we are looking at the social end starting to creep in now
DeleteI hear you.
ReplyDeleteOn all counts.
My only momentous achievement is that I am still here, still gardening, still reading, still volunteering.
if you dont garden now, you wont have such a nice garden in a few months. You do well, Sue and I appreciate your volunteering
DeleteI suppose the same things will happen in the next 3 months as has happened during the past 9 months......only not on such a dramatic scale. A much minor scale hopefully. Things will change slowly Kylie, as you said...January 1 is just a date....it doesn’t recognise all those hopes and dreams people are putting into it.
ReplyDeleteThere’s no point in wishing your life away’ my mother use to say....’get out there a live it, warts and all’.
thanks Cathy, no point wishing your life away is part of what i was getting at!
DeleteI think a lot of people are looking forward to 2021 like the end of a shortish drive but isolation, waves of viral infection, non-functioning fountains, face masks and hand sanitiser will most likely be with us, alongside all the usual and unusual life events, illnesses and difficulties that we experience. It could be like a never ending road trip, in bad weather, with miserable companions.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great analogy!
I have resigned myself to knowing/thinking that this virus will be here, threatening all of us for the duration of my life. That thought is not pessimism, just resignation. However, isolating for the rest of my life is better than dying an early death and so horribly. This is not pessimism about the future, just reality. I felt sad when I first thought this. Now, I am not sad. By the way, I will be 74 next week and would die most likely if I caught the covid19. I can live with this reality of living under constraints.
I want to say that surely you won't finish your life under these circumstances but realistically you very well could be right. I think it is smart to be resigned to the current restrictions, railing against it is just exhausting and life sapping
DeleteYou are absolutely on the money Kylie. Only yesterday I had a conversation with someone who has had chronic fatigue, job insecurity, the death of her father and further conflict at work. She also expressed a wish for the new year to start as if things are going to be different.
ReplyDeleteYou are right - 2021 is just an arbitrary number. I could give you a list of the crap that I've had to deal with this year but you've probably read some of it on my blog already. The difference is that I expected the chaos and feel that it will be ongoing. Chaos is the new normal. This is a special time in our human evolution and it was predicted. Whether you follow Christian scripture or the Hindu theory of Kali Yorga - life is changing on the planet in significant ways because knowingly or otherwise we have engineered it.
I don't have any smart solutions, apart from suggesting that we all need to get our 'spiritual' houses in order, whichever theology you follow. I suspect that if we had done that collectively already we may not be in the situation we are in now.
yes, you've had a tough year but like i said to Linda of practical parsimony, resisting just takes energy.
DeleteI do agree that if we were all more spiritually tuned up, we might be in a better place.
I do think healing (for people and planet) is possible but will we allow it?
Yep you are right about resistance. I don't know Kylie - I used to think we could heal things and maybe I'm just getting old and tired, but I don't see the will for change from those who need to make the biggest changes. In their materialistic eyes they have too much to lose. I guess it's still possible but in the meantime, I've pretty much given up resisting and I'll just try and get my own house in order.
DeleteAs 2021 will bring me one year nearer to being an octogenarian I really have no wish for the next year to come. I try and make the most of every minute. I haven't got as many left as I used to have.
ReplyDeleteNone of us have as many days as we'd like and theres still about 100 in this year so yea, I'm not keen to wish them away either, Graham
DeleteI can't see any magic wand being waved on the first day of 2021 that will change everything and restore what people often refer to as their old lives.
ReplyDeleteWe seem to be overrun by group think where if some idea is repeated often enough it might happen.
Most of my energy is devoted to dealing with life, such as it is, on a day by day basis.
Alphie
yes, I agree that everyday life is enough to keep me focussed most days. I don't really feel that life has changed a lot although the end of jobkeeper might present problems for me....we'll worry about that then
DeleteI know what you mean. And everything is going at a snail's pace because of Covid restrictions - so even when I take the plunge to get things done it just takes so long. I don't think this is going to change in 2021. I am, however, relieved to see that my favourite tv soap is back on Monday, that'll perk me up.
ReplyDeleteSx
There's nothing like a good soap for escapism! What is it, your favourite?
DeleteEastenders - simply because I've been watching it since 1985 [which sounds a bit tragic]. I also love Corrie, and their socially distanced episodes have cheered me up no end!
DeleteSx
I think that this kind of thinking is just wishful. Hoping that 2021 will usher in better times as, 2020 still does not offer any hope whatsoever.
ReplyDeleteIt is wishful thinking and people are so invested in "next year" I thinkit could be even more painful than 2020 in some ways.
DeleteYou are being realistic more than you are being pessimistic Kylie. This thing is not over - not by a long way but at least in 2021 we won't have that draft-dodging philandering racist in The White House...will we? Surely not.
ReplyDeleteI very much hope not but I believe that the people who elected him last time are unlikely to change their minds
DeleteI think this virus is going to be around for quite some time too - and calling this year 2021 already isn't going to change anything is it, so I agree with you. Oh and if it makes your colleague feel any better, my son had two car accidents in the first week after he got his driving licence - neither of which were his fault but it still meant all that paperwork on MY car!
ReplyDeleteyea, been there and done that with kids and cars! this particular one is just careless.
DeleteI thik we need to just dig in anccept that covid isn't going away
I'm in no rush to end this year as it's my birthday in February, and I'll just be another year older. They are saying the Covid should be under control by next Spring, with either herd immunity and a possible vaccine. I'm not sure my life will be that different after it anyway.
ReplyDelete