The Penultimate Day Is Finally Upon Us...

Nothing will ever stay the same. 

Tuesday turns into Wednesday

and something valuable is behind you

Forever.

An "is" has become a "was".

Whatever you have lost, 

you will not get it back:

Not that much-loved brother,

not that ball club, not that splendid bar,

not that place where you once went dancing

with the person you later married.

-"Downtown: My Manhattan"

Pete Hamill

2020 has finally almost reached its end.  For anyone who has lived through it, from this day forward until you attain complete senility, 2020 shall be exempted from inclusion in any story about "the good old days". No one shall ever wax nostalgic about this compendium of calendar entries.  It has taken too much from too many.  In August, it took Pete Hamill. 

Those of us, including myself in that number, who have been fortunate enough to make it to this point in this year relatively unscathed by the year's events, should never lose sight of just how lucky we have been. While it has been said that luck is the residue of design, 2020 has been a year that has reinforced the propriety of Pop Pop's rule about never believing the man who speaks in absolutes.  Not all those gobsmacked by life this year have ended up in the utterly unenviable position in which they find themselves because they planned poorly.  Many too many have been knocked on their pins by a circumstance for which they could not have ever fully prepared, even under the best-case scenario.  Unless you have been in a coma or have been consuming nothing but Kool-Aid for the past three hundred and sixty-four days, you know that we the people of these United States have occupied a place somewhere decidedly south of the best-case scenario.  

If you have been lucky enough to only be indirectly affected by this year's COVID-19 pandemic and the economic disaster that has ridden along side it as if they are two of the Apocalypse's Four Horsemen, then carry with you into 2021 and the rest of your days thereafter the humility you have hopefully learned.  So far, my family has remained healthy and safe and I have gotten up every morning and been able to earn my living in my chosen profession.  Certainly, my own work ethic has been a factor in my good fortune but to think it has been the only factor would be, truthfully, delusional.  

We the people of these United States must never forget that as we make our merry way pursuing happiness we are all occupants of the same, solitary canoe.  Success or failure is determined by how purposefully we paddle the canoe.  Since not everyone paddles at the same pace and since everyone cannot paddle for the same length of time, we move the canoe purposefully only when we recognize those truths and compensate for them accordingly.  When I tire, you pick up the slack for me. I shall do so for you when you tire. 

One nation.  One canoe.  

Got your paddle? 

-AK