A Year None of Us Likely Ever Will Forget

"Sometimes a year has been so disastrous and so terrible that entering a new year will automatically mean entering a wonderful year. Let's hope that New Year saying from contemporary Turkish playwright, novelist and thinker Mehmet Murat ildan proves to be true in 2021, considering the hardships that have been felt around the world this past year...the year of Covid 19.

Even though it has been months since the pandemic hit, I still can't get over the horror stories you see on TV and/or read about in the daily newspaper. Hundreds of thousands have died, with thousands more added to the list every day.

Then there are those survivors who have had their lives turned upside down by the coronavirus. Businesses, from Mom and Pop operations to big-name corporations, have had to close--in some cases, for keeps.

And check out those never-ending food lines that, as a result, swamp parking lots all across the land. Many of these folks who, through no fault of their own, now find themselves on the "receiving" end of these lines are the same ones who previously were on the "giving" end. And even with all the help that's being provided, there still are some people going hungry...including children. That's why my wife and I, like a lot of other folks, have been making donations to the local foodbanks.

Time and again, I've been reminded of an era that, until now, I always had figured was permanently behind me...in the rearview mirror, so to speak. As a youth in grade school, and even through part of middle school, I was acutely aware of families in my little hometown who really struggled to make ends meet. For that matter, I sat in class with some of the children involved. And if it hadn't been for others helping them from time to time, they likely wouldn't have managed.

It's been so real that I sometimes have felt like I've been strapped into a time machine and sent hurtling back to those long-ago childhood days. And now that the vaccines are arriving on the scene, I find myself remembering those early days when the school health nurse and local doctors set up station in the school gym to administer the polio vaccine to all of us.

Since I began this commentary with a saying, I want to end it the same way, with these words from the British poet Alfred Lord Tennyson, "Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, 'It will be happier.'" Let us all hope he's right.

Please accept my sincere wishes that each and every one of you enjoy health, happiness and prosperity in the year ahead.