One day they will write about us in the history books. About us, our parents, our children. There will be facts and statistics. There will be mention of disease and death and mourning. There will be talk about how some people felt protected by a mask and how others rioted against it because they felt it infringed upon their righsts and freedom. There will be plenty of photographs of people rioting all over the country over police brutality. I can just see it now on the pages of some history book that my grandchildren will read. The hatred, the racism, the rott of society that gurgles up to the surface of our already angered earth. The earthquakes, the raging fires, the strange weather patterns. How it was election year in the great U.S. of A. and we had to mail in our votes which rigged the election no matter who won. Violence and hatred prevailed in those days, they will say. It was an apocaliptycal year they will write. I am sure they will mention the religious groups speaking of the end of days as predicted in the Book of John. Unemployement was so high that the Federal and State governments went bankrupt trying to resolve it. Pictures of people lining up for soup kitchens, the images reminding us all of another era, another time where this had been seen before. Schools closed and parents and children at odds with each other and the educational and health authorities. But the history books will also include world history which in this case will look alot like our history: parents killing children, children killing parents, brother and sister taking to the streets in hatred for one another...

By now you are probably asking youselves why you are reading all this negativity when you can just turn on the TV the internet and radio and hear all about it there? There is a reason for this ranting of sorts. I am sure that you all have heard many times the expression: "hindsight is 20/20". Well here is the caviat: where is the mention of all the good that has come from this dark year? The bonds with family and friends that were forged via artificial intelligence; the new appreciation for being able to hug and touch our loved ones, something we have always taken for granted and never thought we would be deprived of; the appreciation for our seniors and how fragile they are and how we need to love and visit and hug those who are our elders and who have done so much for us; our nurses and doctors, our good policemen and firefighters, all the good work they do. Our teachers who so diligently teach and watch over our children as we work everyday and take them for granted; eating out with friends, get togethers, family reunions, vacations cancelled and indefinetly postponed; Did we really see this coming? Us, the socety of instant gratification being held back from taking anything for granted.

But what about people checking in on their elderly neighbors? The constant donations to food banks, people putting themselves in a life or death situation by working relentless hours to help take care of the sick and the dying? People on Facebook offering food and toilet paper to those who may need it and dont have it? Yes businesses were lost,but many others started out of the creativity of necessity. People rallied around their own communities and supported their local businesses.

I heard a young man in his early 20"s mention to another how he used to think that his life was boring and dull before Covid-19, and now how he wishes he could go back and appreciate how good he really had it. How he wishes it would go back to "normal".

2020 has been a wake up call for the majority of the world. We have been humbled in so many ways: we have lost our loved ones, our jobs, our social lives, our sense of "normal", and in some cases our own lives. It has been one of the hardest years on record. A year of lessons learned, hopefully.

Lets finish 2020 the right way. With grateful hearts and humbled spirits, that we are not all! We are so much more! We need each other. We need to take care of each other, take care of our beautiful planet and look to the skies not just for space exploration, but for inpiration. We are not alone, we are not forgotten. We are loved in ways we don't even see being possible with our limited 20/20 vision. There is a reason for this "ugly" season. Maybe it wont be written or talked about in the future like all of the facts and statistics and photographs of hatred and destruction. But You and I know it! WE have lived it, WE have felt it, WE have seen it! And the moral of the story is simple: LOVE! Simply Love., in "hindsight.

.