Here we are into December \u2014 the last month of the first year of this decade. Last year about this time I looked back at the 2010 decade\u2026 a lot of \u201cgood and bad\u201d things happened, but I suspect history will record it as a fairly \u201cnormal\u201d decade.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As we\u2019re nearing the end of the first year of this decade, 2020 is shaping up to be the worst year ever. You\u2019ve heard that haven\u2019t you? You\u2019ve probably even said it. The social upheaval that flared after police killed George Floyd in Minneapolis, that led to protests, some accompanied by looting \u2014 the death and economic destruction caused by the pandemic \u2014 the government\u2019s mismanagement of the pandemic \u2014 the constant political bickering and non-functioning government\u2026 it certainly hasn\u2019t been the best of years, but the worst year ever?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I got to thinking about that\u2026. I\u2019ve been fortunate, in my 80 plus years, I can\u2019t say that I\u2019ve ever had a really<\/em> bad year. Sure \u2014 bad things have happened, loved ones and friends have died, we\u2019ve had some illnesses that were on the serious side, jobs that went bad and things like that. But that\u2019s all part of life. One of my friends said that not counting the pandemic, this year reminded him of 1968. I can see his point \u2014 Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated, the Vietnam war was raging, police beat protesters at the Democratic National Convention and rebellions erupted in streets all over the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A number of historians claim that the worst year was 536. That year a volcano erupted in Iceland and the sun dimmed for a year and a half, leading to a catastrophic global cold spell. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So the \u201cworst year\u201d is really objective, and, obviously personal. None of us lived through 536, so we can\u2019t really make a comparison, just like most of us can\u2019t relate to the Spanish flu pandemic or the Great Depression. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For a lot of us, 2020 has been the worst year ever and, of course, it\u2019s been far worse for some than others, but it\u2019s touched us all. And it probably hasn\u2019t been helped by the media constantly telling us what an awful year it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Actually, maybe worst isn\u2019t the right word \u2014 maybe a better word would be strange. We\u2019ve never experienced anything like it. But taken one day at a time, most of us can look around and find happiness, satisfaction or enjoyment in this \u201cnew normal.\u201d And when we really think about it, maybe it isn\u2019t the worst year of our lives\u2026.\u00a0 Here we are into December \u2014 the last month of the first year of this decade. Last year about this time I looked back at the 2010 decade\u2026 a lot of \u201cgood and bad\u201d things happened, but I suspect history … Continue reading
\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"