We’ve made it to 2020! We’ve survived the space between Christmas and New Year’s Day, when we don’t know what day it is, who we are, or what we’re supposed to be doing. Many of us have gathered with family from far and wide, eaten too much, and gotten some much needed rest. Even the babies in our family managed to sleep in during these in-between days.
In the last few days of the year, many have paused to remember those whose lives have been snuffed out in 2019. Some were famous, such as Carroll Spinney (Big Bird), Toni Morrison (a favorite novelist), journalist Cokie Roberts, Green Bay Packer quarterback Bart Starr, faith writer Rachel Held Evans and Congressman Elijah Cummings. Others were closer to home– a beloved grandmother, an influential pastor, a child taken by a tragic accident, a baby born too soon. We mourn lives lived to the fullest, we grieve those gone too soon.
2019 has also given us much joy. Social media has captured the celebration of weddings and graduations, and those first pictures of the most beautiful baby in the world. We’ve been blessed with two of those grandbabies in 2019, and are ever grateful.
In the last days of the year, we’ve also read the annual “most influential stories of 2019” in the T-G, with economic highlights, sporting achievements, and a tragic fire topping the list. Glad there were no serial murders in Ashland this year. Together we lament the closing of Jake’s Steakhouse and Mitchell’s Orchard, cheer the gradual revitalization of downtown Ashland, and are still talking about how fun the Christmas parade was this year.
So what about 2020? As a long-ago fan of the Jetsons and their view of the future from the perspective of the 1960s, I’ve always enjoyed the articles that predict what the future will look like. No personal space travel yet, but we can talk to our watches and they talk back to us. Here are some of my own predictions about the year to come, in no particular order.
Gym memberships will see a surge in January, but will be back to normal levels by March.
No Ohio team will win the Super Bowl, the World Series, or the NBA Championship in 2020. Hope does spring eternal, but this isOhio, y’all.
The Articles of Impeachment will be sent to the Senate sooner or later. There will be a presidential election in 2020, and it will be ugly.
In 2020, the delightful and determined Elizabeth Holiday will start kindergarten. The charming Henry Kyle will learn to walk, and a few months later, so will our sweet Emma Belle. They will both learn to say “Nana.”
Somewhere in the U.S. in this new year, there will be a school shooting, a church shooting, a mall shooting. Many will offer thoughts and prayers, and political leaders will echo the words of Governor Mike DeWine after the Dayton shooting: “We must do something. And that is exactly what we are going to do.” Sob.
Moving to a more personal level, author Anne Lamott predicts, “Maybe some of us will eat a bit less, and walk a bit more, and make sure to wear pants that do not hurt our thighs or our feelings.” Sounds like a plan to me.
At the start of a new year, I also wonder what I can do to make a difference in our world? I can’t stop the shootings, slow down climate change, or coach the Browns. Samantha Power, former American ambassador to the United Nations, helps me: “Shrink the change. Even when you can’t come up with a big solution, there may well be something, however modest, you can do.” She continues, “If you add up all those small steps that can be taken, that’s where you start to make real inroads.” Columnist Connie Schultz understands: “We can’t fix everything that is wrong with the world, but we can improve the world in our immediate orbit.”
“Not all of us can do great things,” Mother Teresa recognized. “But we can do small things with great love.” Seems like a good place to begin in 2020. Happy New Year.
No comments:
Post a Comment