2021 AND WHERE IT GOT US

2021 and where it got us

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Yet again.. Another year,
ANOTHER YEAR!?

And this one was supposed to be far superior to the previous..

We are ending 2021. We are beginning ’22.. did you ever in your life think you would be alive to see those nu numbers in existence? Regardless of your age, it would seem that that we are all experiencing some bizarre manifestation of time travel. I can recall quaint late 1990s evenings. Now it’s 2022 without hours of writing this text. That is unbelievable, as we would guess it is as much for you as it is for us…

While the calendar slowly transgresses from one age to another, I am conflicted. Can we call 2021 a good year? A bad year. It may depend on your exact circumstances. At times, I can account ’21 as being fine. Other times, mainly near the the end of the calendar cycle, it was just awful. My mother died. My father was hospialized, as was my nephew. COVID made its awful round around the family around November despite vaccinations. By Christmas the nation was collectively wounded.

COVID was the main issue of the year. It dominated everything. Even people who thought it was fake were hit.. Many died. As a matter of fact, 2021 ended up being deadlier than 2020 in the SARS category.

In May, Miley Cyrus sang a song of the virus ending on SNL in May.. it was a clear blue morning. President Joe Biden told us that we were declaring independence from COVID on July 4. Masks were off at the White House..
By year’s end, we had a lack of supplies again. A lack of tests again. A burst of fear, and this time a “soft lockdown.” Instead of the government shutting things down, businesses themselves were forced to as staff members turned of positive. Pfizer booster protection… may wane in weeks. Omicron is bustling faster than a holiday shopper.. Will it equal a hospital surge in 2022? Or is that phase over. Are we closer to endemic and a “return to normal”?

Did we even like normal to begin with!?

The Bernie Meme to the Brandon theme..

2021 was highly politicized. Like, everything..

In the early new year, we watched a siege on the Capitol in D.C. on January 6.
Just 14 days later we joked endlessly (and maybe way too much) about a Bernie Sanders meme of the Senator sitting casually in a snow suit and warm gloves at the Biden Inauguration. With that one joke, for a brief time, all of America seemed to have come together! We even wrote about that one Bernie meme was making America great again.

It didn’t last. Sadly. Instead the normal course of disarray took over.

What will historians make of 2021?

For some, it was supposed to be the roaring 20s part 2. In the 1920s, after the Spanish flu quickly came and went, a vast amount of rich vs poor pop culture began. Not much changed in 2021–except our virus didn’t just wane. COVID made a comeback..

For me, personally, 2021 will most likely remain a fuzzy blur of bad memories mixed with somber and yet somehow nostalgic moments. That is what all of these end of the year reviews are all about, anyway right? A “best of times and worst of times” ensemble ..

It is bizarre to consider that we have now done over 20 years in review. We have done so on various platforms and websites. Self-hosted. Google Blogger. Tumblr. WordPress.. and self-hosted.

As each year transfers, it becomes the same as it ever was.
In 2021, it was the same as 2020.. We are really, really, really, profoundly hoping that 2022 breaks that pattern. We need things to change, we crave for that… Within days we will see if it is possible…

525,600 minutes
525,000 moments so dear
525,600 minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?

In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife
In 525,600 minutes
How do you measure a year in the life?