Did You Get The License Number of What Hit Us…………….?

The title of today’s blog seems apt given this year that has managed to run over most of us in more ways than one. The good news is that if you are reading this blog, you are still standing and will forever benefit from this tough year. My old Zone Sergeant often reminded us after an event we might have handled differently that “bought’n learning is the best learning”. The Master has given us a cross to carry this past year, and those of us still standing are ready for the next challenge, stronger and wiser. As is the course of nature, each year sees fewer and fewer of us available to accept the challenge of the New Year. Soon enough, we all will be remembered as opposed to remembering. God bless the folks in the first category.

Each and every soul on earth that still is capable of conscious thought and has a working memory, will allocate space in our minds for the word “Covid”. It has painted a year of our lives in some awful color not on the color spectrum. It is not finished with us yet, but we appear to be on the verge of relegating it to the same corner of hell where polio and other horrid maladies reside. We owe a tremendous debt to the fine minds that have not only found a way to prevent this demonic malady, but devised the logistical chain to distribute the medicine on a massive scale. How is this bought’n learning? We know that anything can become a political issue that is capable of swinging the very ideology of a country in a new direction, even a lousy little virus. It likely will not be in our lifetime, but God willing, we will utter the word “Covid” with the same frequency we utter “polio” or “cholera”……….

The license number of what hit us is more than covid. The number also has things like politics, hatred, division and a new wave of destruction and inability to cope with things that don’t suit us on it. This has been the year of transformation from peaceful resolution to violent confrontation. We have been divided and joined together at the same time. We are divided politically, but each side of the political spectrum has become more unified than ever. This split political personality has allowed hatred to grow unabated. We are wiser in that we recognize this concern, but still we are hell bent on no concession. Our political leadership has no concept of meeting in the middle and I don’t see much progress in the tea leaves of 2021. The Hatfields and McCoys are alive and well.

Finally, in this year that we should forget but never will, the economy takes a front row seat. Few can argue we began the year with a booming economy that has been torched by the afore mentioned issues. The same sage old Sergeant that I referred to was also fond of saying that “all things are possible with enough time and money”. It is a wonderful time to be retired in that a fixed income is indeed an income and those who were toiling for every dollar to keep their lifestyle right side up are now scrambling to meet the basic necessities. Our success is built on a simple concept, you work, you earn and you live. Hopefully in 2021, the opportunity to work will again be abundant, businesses will begin to thrive and rebuild and our neighbors will smile rather than cry. It has been a tough year, and America has been dealt a tough hand to play, but play it we will and ask for a new deal as soon as the cards are down.

I appreciate all of my friends, neighbors and family. I thrive on communication and without you it wouldn’t exist. Have a wonderful New Year and hit the ground running. There is no quit in us……..and that, folks, is formidable!

SR